Il mio paese [Nernier] 1912

Enrico Vegetti made "Il mio paese [Nernier]" with etching, a process where lines are bitten into a metal plate with acid, then printed. Look closely and you can see the incredible detail he coaxes from this method. It feels like a memory, doesn't it? There's a real sense of place created through the layering of lines that form the buildings, water, and distant mountains. Notice how the foreground almost dissolves into the scene, pulling you in. Vegetti doesn't give you all the information, but just enough to spark your imagination. It's the scratchy quality of the lines that interests me most – they create a kind of shimmering effect, as if the whole scene is vibrating. Maybe it's this kind of loose mark-making that brings to mind Whistler. Both artists share a talent for expressing a lot with a minimum of means, letting the viewer fill in the blanks. And that, for me, is where the magic happens.