Pillars of Vermont 1942

Luigi Lucioni made this print, Pillars of Vermont, with a kind of dedicated mark-making. Look at the concentration of tiny etched lines – they add up to a quiet intensity. I can almost feel Lucioni’s hand moving across the plate, each line deliberate, building up these sturdy cylindrical forms. What was it like to stand in front of these barns, looking up at these structures against the vastness of the landscape? Maybe he was thinking about the weight of time, the silent strength of these buildings. The way they seem to hold the sky in place. The textures are amazing. The wooden slats of the silos contrast with the softness of the clouds, the roughness of the earth. You can see the influence of artists like, say, Edward Hopper, in the way he captures the starkness of rural American life. But there’s something uniquely Lucioni here – a kind of quiet reverence for the everyday. This piece reminds us how artists are in constant conversation, each adding their voice to the ongoing story of art.