“Horizon 2”, 1977

James Brown

“Horizon 2”, 1977

Acrylic on cartridge paper backed on canvas

Size: 51.4 x 69.2 cm

At the time I made this painting in 1977, I was grappling with the dominant trends in art like Abstract Minimalism, Colour Field Painting, and Performance Art. My interest in landscape painting felt dated and conceptually thin, overshadowed by these movements that seemed to have eclipsed the things I valued most: the thrill of expressing a pictorial subject through the expressive power of brushstrokes and colour.

My solution, as demonstrated in this painting, was a reductive approach to landscape. I simplified the scene down to a horizon line, focusing on a schematic representation of a headland, emphasizing the emotional impact of the landscape's form and light.