Alte Burg, Germany 1876

Curator: What a wonderfully intricate scene. This is Andrew Fisher Bunner's "Alte Burg, Germany," created in 1876. It's rendered in pen and ink. Editor: Immediately, it strikes me as a wistful echo of times past. The monochrome palette and delicate linework lend it a dreamlike quality, a longing for the romantic medieval period. It also speaks to how history itself is assembled like that pen-and-ink drawing– layered, crosshatched, provisional. Curator: I'm interested in Bunner's choice of materials. Pen and ink as a medium inherently links this landscape to documentation, to record-keeping, and thus to the economic systems of exchange within burgeoning art markets catering to notions of the picturesque and sublime. Editor: The tall tower! Doesn't it appear somewhat lonely? I am feeling this sense of serene isolation in the architectural rendering contrasted to the dense shrubbery. Almost like a visual representation of our inner lives. Curator: Observe the romanticized vision of labor implicit in Bunner's practice. A "carefree" sketch depends, of course, upon specific modes of elite leisure in which making something becomes about an artful performance instead of material production. Editor: Yes, and there's also the element of fantasy involved; not everything rendered appears to correspond in scale or architectural specificity! Bunner's choices were surely emotive over practical. Curator: Perhaps. It seems vital to unpack the economic conditions of this drawing. Art materials were commodified goods distributed through ever-complex colonial networks. The ready availability of mass-produced ink itself indicates specific industrial practices during Bunner's time. Editor: Maybe! For me, it evokes memories of a storybook come to life. Its detailed strokes are imbued with such tangible, imaginative energy... making it far more, if you will, than just ink on paper. Curator: Absolutely, and by recognizing its situatedness within particular economic systems we may appreciate the artistic intention all the more! Thank you for pointing to this nuance. Editor: No, thank YOU. This trip back in time truly resonated.