Rays of Light Behind a Low Bank; Schematic Sky 

Curator: This is Alexander Cozens’s “Rays of Light Behind a Low Bank; Schematic Sky,” currently held in the Tate Collections. Editor: It's strangely calming, almost like a child's drawing of a sunset. The horizontality really emphasizes the width of the sky, and the overall tone feels very muted. Curator: The schematic nature is key; Cozens was interested in the underlying structure of landscape, reducing it to its essential forms. Note the horizon line bisecting the work. Editor: Right, and the rays emanating upward, which, conventionally, signify hope and divine intervention. There's a strong sense of symbolic order, even if understated. Curator: Precisely. The repetition of lines, both those indicating the rays and the paper's horizontal texture, creates a formal rhythm, a visual syntax, if you will. Editor: It's like a dreamscape, archetypal and universal. Cozens distills something essential about our relationship with nature into simple forms. Curator: Indeed, an early precursor to abstract landscape, stripping away detail to reveal the underlying structure. Editor: It's interesting how such simplicity can convey so much feeling, isn't it? Curator: A testament to the power of formal relationships, even in nascent forms.