Julius Caesar Quadrangle of the Moon 1972

Nancy Graves made this map of the moon, titled Julius Caesar Quadrangle of the Moon, with watercolour and graphite. What strikes me is how she embraces the delicate qualities of watercolour, using it to create a dense and almost scientific visual field. Look closely, and you’ll see how the surface is built up from countless tiny dots and delicate lines. There's a real sense of layering and accumulation, which speaks to the process of mapping itself – gathering data, recording observations, and building a picture of a place, even one we can't visit. The color here is really interesting. The palette of pinks, blues, greens, and purples gives the image an ethereal feel, a bit like looking at the moon through a telescope. The intensity of the colour is so varied. Graves reminds me a little of Vija Celmins who also has an interest in the moon. Both artists invite us to think about the relationship between observation, representation, and imagination. It's a reminder that art, like science, is always a process of discovery.