Port of Marseille 1930 - 1933

Hanns Ludwig Katz painted "Port of Marseille," which is on display here at the Städel Museum. It's a stack of architecture, water, masts and cranes made from a gorgeous, crusty patchwork of ochre, white, gray, black and sienna. I can imagine Katz, standing in the port, his body moving back and forth as he laid down the paint. The pigment is not too thick and not too thin, but just right to register each brushstroke. See how the artist has created a kind of atmosphere with these loaded marks? The palette feels northern European to me, like Beckmann or Corinth. The way the rigging of the ships cut into the architecture reminds me of Lyonel Feininger, but the touch is looser, more human and less mechanical. You can see how Katz is part of a community, with a conversation across generations, sharing ideas, helping to create new ways of seeing. It embraces ambiguity, enabling multiple readings of the world through a painting.