Unter den Linden im Regen 1920

Editor: So this is Lesser Ury's "Unter den Linden im Regen," painted in 1920 using oil paint. I'm struck by how it captures the griminess of a rainy city street. What stands out to you? Curator: Well, I see a lot in how the material conditions shaped the creation of this piece, and what it represents about labor and social class. Consider the very oil paint Ury used: commercially produced, readily available. Its accessibility allowed for a rapid creation and dissemination of images depicting modern life, especially for artists who catered to middle-class taste and patronage. How does this availability impact our interpretation? Editor: That's a really interesting angle. I guess it means he was making art for a specific market, maybe mass consumption? Curator: Precisely! The subject, a bustling street in the rain, reveals more about the means of production than meets the eye. Think about the carriages and automobiles represented: signs of a stratified society, products of industrial labor, and indicative of movement within an expanding, and consuming, urban center. Where are these figures going and how does that correlate to the system that creates them? Editor: Right, the city itself as a kind of engine. I never thought about it that way. It’s not just a pretty scene, but evidence of a whole system. Curator: Indeed. And even the brushstrokes themselves - quick, impressionistic - point to a kind of mass production of art, reflecting the fast pace and consumer culture of the Weimar Republic. What choices had to be made during the painting and production process? Editor: That’s a complete reframe for me, linking the physical creation and the socio-economic backdrop. Thanks! Curator: It is essential to consider art beyond the canvas; its impact resides within its means and mode of production.