From Constable: Stoke-by-Nayland (plate 2) 1991

Curator: Leon Kossoff's "From Constable: Stoke-by-Nayland (plate 2)" is an etching, roughly 45 by 55 centimeters, held in the Tate Collections. Editor: It's incredibly energetic, almost violent, in its mark-making. I see a whirlwind of lines, hinting at a landscape struggling to emerge. Curator: The title connects Kossoff's work directly to Constable, inviting us to consider his process in relation to the Romantic landscape tradition. He's grappling with artistic lineage. Editor: The church tower in the background has always been a potent symbol of stability, but here, it seems besieged by chaos, almost like a memory fading. Curator: Kossoff's etching reveals the physical act of image-making, the labour involved, quite raw and unpolished. It's less about idealization and more about the struggle to represent. Editor: The starkness, the monochrome palette… it strips away the picturesque, leaving only the emotional core, that primal connection to the land. Curator: A potent reminder that art is as much about the making as it is about the seeing. Editor: It leaves me pondering the weight of history on our perceptions.