Ayr Prison 1905

Muirhead Bone made this etching of Ayr Prison, and you can see how he uses these tiny, precise marks to build up this rather imposing structure. It's like he's thinking about the process of building itself, brick by tiny brick. The thing that gets me is the way the light catches on the side of the building. There's a real contrast between the stark white and the deep shadows. Look closely, and you can see all these little lines, like a kind of code, that describe the texture of the stone. It’s almost as if the building is breathing, and these lines are the rhythm of its breath. There is a very similar feeling in some of Piranesi's architectural prints, where the buildings become these massive, almost impossible structures. Art's like a conversation, right? Bone is speaking to Piranesi, and maybe someone else will speak to Bone someday.