Brueghelscape #1 1964

Peter Milton created Brueghelscape #1, and he did it using etching. Look at that surface, built up bit by bit. I can just imagine Milton bent over the plate, acid fumes in the air, digging in, wiping away, proofing, then digging in again. The result is a landscape packed with detail. Those tiny, tiny marks are a symphony of textures, right? You can feel the craggy rocks, the barren trees, the desolate, windswept paths. What was Milton thinking? I wonder if he was lost in his own world when he made this. It’s got a strange kind of panoramic feel that sucks you in. I'm reminded of Piranesi, another printmaker who went deep into architecture, and made the unreal feel real, or the real feel unreal. And of course, he was looking at Brueghel! Ultimately it’s about this conversation, artists looking and learning from one another. It's how painting and printmaking—all art forms—grow and evolve, through these exchanges and transformations.