Tree-lined embankment 

Curator: Welcome to the Städel Museum. Here, we have "Tree-lined embankment", a pencil drawing by Peter Becker. It's currently undated. Editor: It feels incredibly wistful, doesn't it? Like a half-remembered dream, all delicate lines and suggestive forms. It’s so fragile. I’m almost scared to breathe on it, fearing it will blow away. Curator: The beauty here is that through a representational landscape, we find that the artist engages with explorations into form and the linear possibilities inherent in drawing. Given the artist's lifetime spanned both World Wars, could the apparent ethereality hint at a retreat from conflict, a conscious turning to the personal amidst immense social and political turmoil? Editor: Perhaps. Or perhaps it's the way nature so easily reclaims ground, even in times of strife? Look how the wild embankment spills forward, seemingly unfazed, maybe even flourishing. I’m suddenly struck by how impermanent and yet deeply enduring our experiences are – reflected in every hastily sketched line. Is that too sentimental? Curator: Sentimentality has its place. This is what brings an artwork to life. The composition draws us in: the eye moves from the clustered trees to the seemingly open vista on the horizon. It invites reflection. Editor: Precisely! Like looking into the distance but also inwards, contemplating both where we stand and what lies ahead, what can we grasp, what slips between the fingers like sand. It almost makes me laugh at the idea of even *labeling* that feeling, fixing its meaning down...it’s beyond any easy political framing, in my opinion. Curator: I agree it surpasses such reductive definitions, yet the cultural contexts must not be dismissed. Still, perhaps its openness to diverse interpretations remains its greatest strength, enabling viewers to see echoes of their own realities within Becker's intimate landscape study. Editor: Yes! We can project ourselves, then, into that scene and also into its making…the way our perceptions of nature and self get drawn and redrawn on the page, over and over, like a continuous gesture! Well, I’m definitely leaving here wanting to pick up a pencil! Curator: Hopefully, that impulse will ignite similar creative reflections for all our listeners! Thanks for your unique thoughts on this work.