II. WALD 2008

Editor: This is "II. WALD" by Gerhard Richter, from 2008. It appears to be a photograph, perhaps with some mixed media on top. The monochrome palette gives the landscape a hazy and perhaps haunting feel. How do you interpret this work? Curator: Haunting is spot-on, I think. Richter’s forest is less about the specifics of trees and more about a mood. I'm getting a bit of a German Expressionism vibe, and perhaps some personal introspection about how to remember the past, without getting trapped by its more negative parts, almost like something being actively painted-over. Editor: I can see that now. The solid band of darker color definitely obscures the lower part of the forest scene. Is this covering-up intentional, do you think? Curator: Absolutely intentional. It’s a way of saying, “You can’t fully know.” Or maybe even, “You don’t *need* to fully know.” Like a half-repressed memory bubbling to the surface, but incomplete. He often used blurred and obscured imagery to question photography's supposed objectivity, turning towards abstraction. It makes me wonder what secrets this forest holds, not necessarily secrets on a historical level, but personal ones. Editor: So, you’re saying that it is the act of obscuring that's critical, not simply *what* is obscured? Curator: Exactly. The process is more interesting than a direct view of "truth", whatever that would look like. Don't you agree? Perhaps he is offering a vision that resonates even deeper in the modern condition. The experience becomes richer and more challenging to define and quantify, leaving the space to suggest much broader perspectives to explore. Editor: I definitely see that perspective now, that’s a great point, and much richer than I was imagining at first!