Schade aan het Coolsingelziekenhuis te Rotterdam c. 1940 - 1945

Here we see J. Nolte’s photograph of the damaged Coolsingel Hospital in Rotterdam. It's a stark image, and the grayscale tones feel immediate, almost like you could reach out and touch the debris. Look at how Nolte frames the building; it’s not just about documentation, there’s a clear attempt to find some order amidst the chaos, a composition of lines that cut across each other. The textures are rough, almost palpable. The eye travels around the rubble and blasted brickwork, with broken window frames creating a rhythm. But the building continues back into space, so the eye can't settle. It's like Nolte is trying to find a way to see something that is fundamentally broken, and almost invisible. Think about what this echoes in the work of someone like Gerhard Richter, another German artist who dealt with the aftermath of war, though his approach was a more painterly and abstract.