Initial G c. 1884

Curator: Welcome. We’re standing before “Initial G,” an ink drawing from around 1884 by Wilhelm Steinhausen, housed right here in the Städel Museum. Editor: It's immediately striking. I sense a kind of meditative quality… the muted grey tones and intricate floral designs evoke illuminated manuscripts, which brings a kind of hallowed serenity. Curator: Absolutely. Consider how initials, historically, served not just as markers in a text, but also as concentrated sites for visual and symbolic expression. Within these spaces, cultural power structures can play out in surprisingly overt ways. How do you interpret the relationship between text and image here? Editor: The "G" feels almost secondary to the organic life blooming around it. Those simple blossoms and radiating dots…they're ancient solar symbols, representing vitality and divine light that predates even the Roman alphabet that is our initial here. Steinhausen layers historical consciousness beautifully, evoking the timeless and universal with subtle gestures. Curator: The flowers, possibly wild roses, are a nuanced addition. Roses historically intertwine love and mourning, encapsulating complex sentiments of female desire and oppression across different historical and social contexts. Think, for instance, about the legacy of the “War of the Roses,” or their prevalent symbolism across early feminist tracts… Editor: Precisely. By embedding these images of nature in a hand-rendered letterform, the work offers us a sense of cultural continuity. This symbolic lineage helps anchor Steinhausen within a narrative of artistic practice that, on the surface, seeks elegance, but simultaneously suggests that meaning itself unfolds across generations through visual cues and creative interpretation. Curator: These types of artistic strategies offer invaluable insight, I think, in any case, how artistic output mirrors, amplifies, or challenges prevailing assumptions around power, sexuality, or even political will. It also challenges the false idea of a fixed “canon” Editor: For me, “Initial G” stands as a beautiful reminder that the symbolic vocabulary woven into art reflects not just personal experience but also that of collective historical consciousness, always there to reveal continuities for us.