Waldlandschaft c. 1924

Otto Mueller’s "Waldlandschaft" invites us into a forest rendered in bold linework and vibrant color. The composition is structured by vertical tree trunks countered by the horizontal line of a small body of water, creating a contained, almost claustrophobic space. The palette is dominated by greens and yellows, applied in flat planes that reduce the landscape to its essential forms. Mueller, associated with the German Expressionist group Die Brücke, was interested in simplifying forms to convey raw emotional states. In this print, the lack of traditional perspective and shading flattens the scene, pushing the foreground and background together. This echoes the Expressionist desire to collapse conventional modes of representation and challenge fixed notions of space. Consider how the woodcut medium itself – with its inherent roughness and graphic quality – contributes to the overall impact. The stark contrasts and simplified shapes reflect a broader artistic project of interrogating established visual languages. Through a focus on form and color, Mueller opens up a space for interpreting nature not as a picturesque scene, but as a site of intense, subjective experience.