Vorstadt I 1926

Karl Wiener created this drawing, Vorstadt I, using coloured pencil. The composition is dominated by an urban landscape, its buildings rendered with sharp, angular lines and a palette of muted yellows, reds, and blues. The overall effect is one of geometric stylization. Wiener's arrangement of buildings creates a visual rhythm, guiding the eye along the receding street. The buildings’ forms are simplified into geometric shapes which reflect the broader modernist tendency to reduce objects to their essential forms. The use of color also plays a crucial role. The limited palette and the way colors are applied create a sense of texture and depth, highlighting the materiality of the medium itself. In its totality, Vorstadt I, captures the spirit of early twentieth century art, as artists began to explore new ways of representing the world through abstraction and simplification. It invites us to consider how such formal elements can convey both a sense of place and a deeper commentary on the nature of representation itself.