Caltavuturo in The Madonie Mountains, Sicily 1933

M.C. Escher pulled this graphic landscape out of a block, probably wood, using black ink to describe the town of Caltavuturo nestled in the Madonie Mountains of Sicily. The dense hatching and cross-hatching almost feels like a kind of topographic map, the texture creating the sense of place. Look closely at the town; the buildings are just shapes, lines, reduced to the most basic elements. It’s the relationships between them that creates form, that helps us to see and understand the town as a whole. That jagged mountain range, looming over the town, it’s like a conversation between the artist and the mountain itself. I think about someone like Agnes Martin, how she was also interested in the reduction of form, the idea that art is a process of distillation. It’s a reminder that art isn’t about answers but about the questions we ask.