Untitled (After Nature: Landscape) 1962

Editor: This watercolor work, titled "Untitled (After Nature: Landscape)" was created in 1962 by Charlotte Posenenske. Looking at the brushstrokes and the layering of blues and browns, it feels very gestural and process-oriented to me. What's your perspective on this piece? Curator: Considering Posenenske’s later embrace of industrial materials and mass production, this early watercolor provides a fascinating insight into her artistic development. Look at how she uses a typically ‘high art’ medium – watercolor – but seemingly without striving for traditional aesthetic beauty. The gestural marks feel almost like notations or instructions. Do you think the “landscape” in the title is merely descriptive? Editor: I initially thought it was referencing the landscape genre. But your comment makes me think, perhaps it's less about representation and more about the labor involved in creating any image, natural or constructed. Curator: Exactly. Posenenske engages with materiality and challenges hierarchical assumptions within the art world. She is playing with the landscape tradition while subtly undermining the notion of unique artistic genius by what seems a more mechanical production than inspired expression. What do you think about the repetition of forms in relation to factory processes? Editor: I hadn't considered the repetition, but now that you mention it, the similar shapes do seem almost modular. It's interesting how that tension is already present here, even before she moves into her more overtly industrial work. Curator: This piece reveals the beginnings of Posenenske's radical move away from traditional art-making. It reveals how, for her, process and material inquiry became intrinsically linked to a wider critique of the commodification and distribution of art itself. Editor: It's amazing how much this watercolor reveals about Posenenske's future artistic path. I will definitely consider the materials and production process as the subject of the artwork now.