Passage II 1971

Curator: Here we have Peter Milton’s 1971 etching, "Passage II". What's your immediate reaction to this cityscape? Editor: An unsettling calm, almost a melancholic stillness. The limited palette enhances a dreamlike atmosphere, but with an edge, something subtly disquieting about the figures. Curator: Milton was a master of etching, layering images to create complex narratives. Note the process; the careful scoring of the metal, the immersion in acid, the repetitive labor involved. The soft tonality belies the physical effort. The materiality, I would say, greatly informs the emotional content. Editor: Absolutely. Look at how architectural forms such as stairways and arcades are repeated and fragmented; how they simultaneously create space and obstruct our view. Note also how this all may carry a deep symbolic significance, referencing transitions, both physical and psychological. Curator: It's not simply representational. It calls to question how the image was manufactured. This kind of painstaking production allowed Milton to comment on contemporary societal mechanisms that seemed automated and anonymous, even dystopian. He used the meticulousness of etching as a subtle counterpoint. Editor: The blurred figure on the lower left adds to the feeling of temporal instability. Could it reference a ghost, a memory, or perhaps even the passing of time itself, especially given the classical figures grouped in the background? Curator: And those classical allusions! A very physical labor of mark-making depicting leisurely contemplation—is Milton commenting on the disappearing place of leisure, perhaps even an aristocratic bygone era? Editor: The ghostly figures and looming architectural shapes leave us pondering on the weight of the past and our journey toward an unknowable future, with that one single walker that seems to leave the whole group, which may become a striking commentary about society at the time, how everyone just walked apart, alone. Curator: It's the tension between what is meticulously crafted and what is inherently elusive about experience itself that continues to draw me in. A truly intriguing work. Editor: Indeed. "Passage II" invites contemplation, revealing the enduring power of symbols, but also asking the audience about the labor implied in their crafting, opening a rich territory of analysis.