Komposition med en arbejder og en bonde 1932

Curator: Welcome. We are standing before Franz Wilhelm Seiwert’s 1932 woodcut, “Komposition med en arbejder og en bonde,” or “Composition with a Worker and a Farmer.” It is a striking example of social realism meeting abstraction, a tight dance of black and white. Editor: My first thought? Stern! Utterly serious. These figures seem almost built from stone, yet they're alive with a sense of forward motion. I wonder what sort of weight those heavy, dark blocks would have, translated into emotional baggage? Curator: Formally, the print showcases Seiwert’s engagement with geometric abstraction, a feature prominent in post-WWI German art. Notice how he reduces the figures to essential shapes—cylinders, rectangles, and circles—stripped of all but crucial detail. This simplifies yet amplifies their symbolic nature. Editor: Exactly. It is like they have been distilled into the very *idea* of worker and farmer. You’ve got the tools – I think that must be a shovel on the left and perhaps a trowel on the right? But the faces…the lack of human softness is so jarring. I keep imagining what dreams or anxieties might hide behind those hard lines. Are they marching, working or simply existing in shared oppression? Curator: I find the tension less oppressive and more…purposeful. It reflects a critical stance toward the social dynamics of the time, pushing viewers to recognize their place within such constructions. Consider the woodcut medium: it necessitates carving away, reduction, in line with his reductive figuration. Editor: Hmmm, I see that, certainly the deliberate roughness speaks volumes. I get a feeling, though, that Seiwert wasn't merely dissecting the problem from a detached intellectual height, more than just analyzing. These are symbols – there is an implied humanity here even if it is reduced to these brutal forms! And maybe *because* it’s in these brutal forms, that really stings. Curator: Yes, his simplification directs our eyes towards power structures – the rigid geometry implying systems over people. And ultimately it asks, as social realist artwork is want to do, ‘who holds that power’? Editor: This little visual shot of industrialization and humanity is something that will definitely follow me as I continue moving throughout the gallery today! Curator: Indeed. And by considering the dialogue between form and subject here in this “Komposition med en arbejder og en bonde”, one might better perceive its potent commentary.