Via Appia (Appian Way) 1960

This is Anton Lehmden’s ‘Via Appia,’ made with etching on paper. Look at the image and imagine the artist bent over the plate, scratching away with focused intensity. It seems like he is building a world, one tiny mark at a time. It's this incredible sense of detail, almost obsessive, that really pulls you in. I imagine him thinking about memory, about the weight of history, while he works. It's like he's trying to capture not just the road itself, but also the feeling of walking that road, of being surrounded by the ghosts of the past. It's not just about the architecture but the sense of decay, the way nature reclaims what humans build. Like Piranesi, Lehmden is able to evoke the drama and grandeur of antiquity. But it's also totally Lehmden, with his own unique sensibility and vision. Artists build on the work of those who came before, they are in conversation with each other across time.