Terminus

Clive Head’s meticulously detailed etching presents a view of London’s Victoria Underground Station bustling with commuters and tourists. Its title, Terminus, refers to Terminus Place, a nearby street that is accessed by the prominent stairway occupying the left-hand portion of the scene. As is typical for the artist, Head presents multiple perspectives within a single expansive composition, a tactic that mimics human vision in that one must visually scan the etching to perceive the various viewpoints of the scene. In this regard, Head’s work differs from photorealism, which records the world as if one is looking through a camera lens. Terminus is one of several large-scale etchings Head made in 2012 that marked the end of a twenty-year hiatus from printmaking.