Highway Number Seven c. 1950 - 1951

"Highway Number Seven" is a print made by George Joseph Mess, and its cool grays and blacks give me a sense of how he carefully observed light and shadow in the landscape. I think about Mess, out there in the landscape, trying to capture the way the road snakes off into the distance, or the geometric planes of the fields. It must have been difficult. I can imagine him squinting, trying to simplify the scene into bold, contrasting shapes. Notice how the crisp lines of the buildings are set against the more organic forms of the hills and trees. And the stark contrast between the white road and dark fields creates a really interesting sense of depth. Mess brings such a modern sensibility to this traditional subject matter. He owes a debt to painters like Cezanne and other landscape painters who came before. By building on their work, Mess finds his own way of seeing and representing the world. It's a reminder that artists are always in conversation with one another, across time and space.