Rhondda No.2

Date1960

MediumEtching on paper

DimensionsCurrently unknown

ClassificationsArtworks/Commemorations/Photographs

Terms

Object numberPT0082

DescriptionDated January 1960.

Rhondda is a Welsh valley formerly associated with coal mining. Rhondda saw massive industrial expansion during the nineteenth century and reached its peak production between 1840 and 1925. By the time Green produced this image of one of Rhondda's many mines and pit wheels, the valley had seen decades of measured decline in coal mining and production. Green's use of semi-abstract forms, skeletal structures, and a reduced depth of field appears to consume the antique remnants of Rhondda's industrial past, perhaps echoing its slow decline. The composition almost struggles to contain the vast pointed slag heaps, rising like mountains from the valley floor.

Green's work during the late 1950s and early 1960s explores landscapes of an industrial heritage. Works of a similar Welsh mining theme include Welsh Landscape No.1, 2, and 3 (all dated 1960) which depict an unglamorous and grey, mining community dominated by its mine shaft and pit-wheel. Both structures are positioned centrally in all three works, with typical terraced housing surrounding. In such evocative images there is a centrality, an almost church-like focus, attached to the mines and their associated architectures. Although human figures are not included in Green’s industrial landscapes, their presence (and absence) is undeniably felt.

Other industrial locations depicted by Green include Boxhill quarry in Wiltshire, 1958 (Victoria and Albert Museum)

Benjamin Angwin – October 2014

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