Untitled, No. 1 c. 1930

This is an undated print called ‘Untitled, No. 1’ by Virginia Berresford. It shows a building with a staircase, rendered entirely in cool grey pencil strokes. Look at the marks on the building, they all seem to move in the same direction. It’s as if Berresford has created a kind of atmosphere across the whole image. The pencil creates texture and almost a sense of weather. The steps are rendered with a real clarity that contrasts with the haziness of the building itself, which seems to recede into the distance. It makes me think of the way Giorgio Morandi painted bottles – the same kind of contemplative treatment of an everyday subject. What I love about art is how it can be so deeply poetic, while appearing on the surface to be so very simple. We can all find our own way up those steps. It's an invitation.