Fabriksanlagen c. 1925

Karl Wiener made this ink drawing, Fabriksanlagen, with black ink on paper. It’s graphic and stark, a landscape of industrial buildings, each shape clearly defined against the plain ground of the paper. Imagine Karl with his ink and pen, carefully rendering each building, each chimney stack, each blade of grass. I wonder if he was drawn to the stark beauty of these functional structures, or if there's a deeper comment being made about the industrialization of the landscape. The precision in his lines reminds me of other artists who found beauty in the everyday, like Charles Sheeler. But Wiener’s image has a starkness, a kind of loneliness, which resonates with artists like Edward Hopper. It's a study in contrasts and how our understanding of a space shifts with each mark we make.