Panorama Dutch Mountain 1971

Jan Dibbets created this photo construction, Panorama Dutch Mountain. The subdued palette and segmented presentation give this piece a conceptual, almost diagrammatic feel, but with a big dose of Dutch light. It's like he's taken the idea of a landscape and broken it down into its component parts, offering it to us as a set of colour blocks, inviting us to rebuild it in our minds. I’m drawn to the way Dibbets plays with perspective and perception, constructing a panorama from multiple photographs. See how each frame captures a slightly different angle, a different moment? Together they form a kind of impossible, flattened-out landscape. There is the geometric abstraction of early work by Mondrian, and even the playfulness of Hockney’s photo collages. It’s about seeing the world in a new way, embracing the beauty of imperfection, and recognizing that there's always more than one way to view a scene.