Landschap met bomen en bebouwing 1923

Editor: Here we have Alexander Shilling’s 1923 pencil drawing, "Landschap met bomen en bebouwing," or "Landscape with Trees and Buildings." It has a tentative, almost haunting quality – a quiet corner of the world caught in a fleeting moment. What strikes you when you look at this piece? Curator: It's fascinating how Shilling balances realism with abstraction here, isn't it? I see this yearning, a kind of quiet reaching. It makes me think about those moments when the landscape whispers secrets, and we're just trying to catch a thread of it. The starkness could mirror a time of personal or societal uncertainty, you know, that post-war feeling of rebuilding on shaky ground. It's more than just a landscape; it’s a state of mind rendered in pencil. What do you make of the geometric elements mixed with the natural forms? Editor: I noticed that too! It’s like he’s trying to find structure in nature, maybe imposing order on chaos? Is that typical for the period? Curator: Absolutely, that tension was bubbling in a lot of art then. Artists were wrestling with how to represent a world that felt fundamentally different after immense upheaval. Did the recognizable, old forms still hold true? Could you still paint a landscape "as is," or did you have to find a new language? Shilling seems to be feeling his way through that dilemma, don’t you think? Editor: Definitely. It's like he's sketching out not just a landscape, but also a question. I really appreciate your insight on how context enriches art analysis! Curator: My pleasure! And you reminded me of the quiet power these understated pieces can possess, hinting at the unspoken anxieties and aspirations of their time. Thanks for pointing that out.