Skovagtigt landskab med huse 1940s

Curator: Vilhelm Lundstrom’s "Skovagtigt landskab med huse," or "Woodland Landscape with Houses," created in the 1940s and residing here at the SMK, presents us with a rather unconventional rendering of the Danish countryside. Editor: It’s beautifully muted, isn’t it? Almost as if the scene is being remembered, the pastel watercolors bleeding into each other creating soft blocks of color rather than distinct objects. There is an undeniable quietude about this landscape. Curator: Yes, and it is quite different from what one might expect, since the traditional landscape usually idealizes nature. Lundstrom's take seems to be deliberately challenging that very idea by using watercolor painting to portray a sense of spatial ambiguity. We can identify familiar forms, such as houses and trees, however, their definition becomes dissolved within a color composition. Editor: It’s a radical statement, especially given the sociopolitical environment of the 1940s. Here’s a landscape stripped bare of propaganda—there is neither beauty nor devastation, just existence, a quiet survival of form. Abstraction can be such a powerful form of resistance. Curator: I find that resistance fascinating when paired with the more lyrical elements here, particularly in how he coaxes such expressive subtlety out of this wash technique. Lundstrom walked his own path, drawing on cubist influences, but transforming them in ways utterly unique to his experience of the world. Editor: It’s precisely that blend, isn't it? To witness his radical sensibility so sensitively executed makes this painting speak with such quiet, powerful grace. I think what is being omitted is as poignant as what remains visible. Curator: Absolutely. The absences invite a more contemplative way of seeing, wouldn't you agree? To truly appreciate a work like this we must attune ourselves to hearing what the painting does *not* explicitly tell us, but somehow makes us feel regardless. Editor: Agreed. In Lundstrom's reduction to form, he demands of us to consider not only what we see, but what stories remain just outside of perception. It demands a certain degree of empathy.