A Schematic Cloud Study 

Curator: Alexander Cozens' "A Schematic Cloud Study" at the Tate—it’s essentially just outlines of clouds on paper. My first thought? Austere, almost unsettling in its simplicity. Editor: Yes, it's a study, a reduction to pure form. Note the deliberate placement of each cloud mass, the negative space defining their relationships. Cozens isn’t simply depicting clouds; he's mapping their structure. Curator: Clouds, of course, are often symbols of transformation, ephemerality, the divine even. Here, though, the symbolic weight feels…absent, replaced by something more clinical. Editor: Precisely. It’s about visual language itself, not metaphor. The contour becomes the content. This work reveals the underlying architecture of atmospheric phenomena, laying bare the principles of composition. Curator: So we see not the romantic sublime, but the anatomy of the sublime. Interesting. Editor: A fitting encapsulation. I find that I am now better equipped to study the arrangement of cloudscapes.