Plate 8 c. 1785

Curator: Here we have "Plate 8" by Alexander Cozens, currently held in the Tate Collections. Editor: It looks like an inky Rorschach test—brooding and elemental. I see mountains… or maybe stormy seascapes. Curator: Cozens was fascinated by blots, using them as generative tools. He saw them as fundamental forms. Consider the cost of paper and ink in the late 18th century and his working process. Editor: It’s like he’s coaxing landscapes from the void. You see that little flourish there? I wonder if he knew it would evoke this sense of vastness, of nature in its rawest form. Curator: The materiality itself guides the image, challenging notions of artistic mastery. Editor: Absolutely, I feel invited to play with meaning, to find landscapes in the abstract. A collaboration between artist and accident, I suppose. Curator: Precisely. It seems to invite us to question our own ways of seeing. Editor: Making me realize that sometimes the most profound visions come from the simplest means.