Tormod Torfæus 1779 - 1781

Curator: We're now looking at J.F. Clemens’ print, "Tormod Torf\u00e6us," created between 1779 and 1781. It’s an etching and engraving. Editor: Well, that’s… stark. Extremely minimalist. A simple obelisk. Sort of tombstone-like. Very high contrast and almost austere. Curator: It’s fascinating how Clemens employs such precise etching techniques to convey what I think is a commentary on remembrance and scholarly labor. Consider the production of engravings like this; so many steps for each image. Editor: Yes, it’s striking how that fine engraving work reinforces this sense of permanence and weighty tradition, yet it's such a basic form. A basic shape almost like an abstracted history book standing upright. The pyramid on top...the eye immediately goes there. It's suggestive. Curator: The text, the meticulous inscription of "Tormod Torf\u00e6us," the Icelander antiquarian. And let's not ignore the landscape at its base. It anchors it, literally, and visually, in place. It implies a place to consume this labor, rooted in production but in turn fixed in history. Editor: So much emptiness, negative space… making you hyper-aware of this monument, this single figure almost swallowed up by history and time itself. Curator: But it begs the question; Is this simply an objective record? A landscape for one, and then also a person? Or is it Clemens making a quiet statement on historical giants as we view the conditions in which they work and make meaning? What is it, afterall, that we consume? Editor: It's intriguing how this piece embodies both commemoration and critique through its austere form and reliance on established symbolic shapes. Thank you! Curator: Precisely. The layered act of image-making itself memorializes. Thank you.