Impressions d’Impression d’Afrique 1980

Editor: This is Markus Raetz's 1980 ink drawing, "Impressions d’Impression d’Afrique." The flowing lines create such a tactile illusion of draped fabric, despite the abstraction. How do you interpret this work through a formal lens? Curator: Its title is an exercise in repetition, layering, or perhaps mirroring. Do you notice how Raetz uses exclusively linear elements? The uniform hatching creates not only volume and texture but also tonal variation, essentially compressing a full spectrum into binary marks. Editor: The lines certainly imply volume and depth in an amazing way! The drawing really deceives your eye. Why do you think he chose to use only lines to portray such volume? Curator: The line itself operates here almost as a sign, a minimalist mark imbued with a certain plastic potential through repetition and rhythmic arrangement, in a way like typography. How might a focus on semiotics aid in analyzing Raetz's strategic repetition of form and pattern in this drawing? Editor: Thinking of the drawing as a set of semiotics is certainly mind-bending, especially when paired with that ambiguous title. Looking at this work now, I am beginning to unpack these layers, thank you! Curator: Absolutely. And consider how Raetz challenges the idea of a singular, fixed impression. Perhaps the interplay of line and form prompts us to reconsider the very nature of perception itself.