German Soil 1940

Werner Peiner made this piece, German Soil, with oil paint and a certain kind of…determination. It’s like he's building up the land, row by row, with these tiny, careful marks. You can almost feel the dry, crumbly texture of the soil. Look how the light catches the ridges. Each stroke seems deliberate, building a sense of order and control. It's not just about depicting a landscape; it's about the act of claiming it, taming it, making it…German. Peiner's got this almost obsessive attention to detail, like in that field, receding into the distance. It brings to mind some of the early Renaissance painters who were just discovering how to render perspective. It’s fascinating, and maybe a little disturbing, how a painting can be both beautiful and ideological. Art is like that, always asking more questions than it answers.