Female nude at a knited carpet 

Editor: Here we have August Macke’s “Female nude at a knitted carpet,” an oil painting. There's a striking contrast between the flatness of the knitted carpet and the three-dimensionality of the figure. It gives a sense of intimacy. What's your interpretation of this work? Curator: Looking at the material context, this painting exemplifies Macke's experimentation with domestic space and the female form within a rapidly industrializing society. How does the "knitted carpet" itself, as a manufactured object, inform our reading of the nude? Is it a sign of encroaching mass production altering traditional artistic subjects? Editor: That's an interesting angle. I was mainly focused on the contrast, the textures... the intimacy. Curator: The texture and the medium are crucial, aren't they? Oil paint, with its history tied to wealth and status, is used to depict a domestic scene involving mass-produced textiles. The carpet, a product of possibly exploitative labor, becomes a stage for the artist's exploration of form and color. Consider who would be purchasing these items – or making the carpets themselves. Editor: So you are saying the painting hints at social class and the process of how materials and objects find their place in homes and in art? Curator: Precisely. Macke uses the familiar setting to question our relationship with material culture and the female body, and oil paints as material contribute to these notions. Editor: I never thought about the carpet in that way! I focused so much on just the visual. Curator: Exactly, that is the first step. It’s always enriching to delve into how the piece came to exist, in its time, to unlock other doors of thinking. Editor: It definitely changes my perspective. I will now see works beyond the mere expression, digging into how they came about and their relation to labour.