Høje, unge træer i gruppe 1873 - 1948

Curator: Immediately striking; almost a ghostly scene of sparse trees, reaching up towards the light. Editor: This is "Høje, unge træer i gruppe," or "Tall, Young Trees in a Group," attributed to Svend Hammershøi. The artwork’s creation spans from 1873 to 1948. Crafted using drawing, etching, pencil, and graphite mediums, this landscape sketch now resides at the SMK, the National Gallery of Denmark. Curator: Its grayscale presentation invites consideration beyond what we see on the surface. Hammershøi was working against the backdrop of emerging industrialized landscape—an existential alienation in the burgeoning cities of his time. How do we perceive ourselves in contrast with this seemingly indifferent nature? Editor: That’s an insightful framing. We might consider the laborious process of rendering each individual branch and trunk using such delicate materials. What’s conveyed through these precise means is crucial; labor practices mirror larger systemic inequities of his time. Curator: Absolutely. Look closer, and the marks of the etching needle on the plate become clear. The textures invoke an immediate sense of raw authenticity; here are young trees but also aging tools used, a play between temporality, the fleeting and the monumental that can be seen in his interiors as well. What labor makes possible is something like grace. Editor: Indeed. And what becomes valued as ‘high art’ versus, say, technical draftsmanship? Here is an image relying entirely on grayscale gradients using very commonplace materials and instruments—materials almost entirely determined by mass manufacturing processes that had grown so explosively across his lifetime. Curator: A relevant contradiction, if you allow! We grapple with Hammershøi's personal anxieties mirrored in the socio-political upheavals reshaping society in general—forces still evident in society. I see also reflections on issues like identity, community and even displacement reflected there, under those trees. Editor: And considering the relationship between humans, industry and the land becomes clearer and clearer the longer we stand here. Curator: A piece pregnant with questions and lingering ambiguity. A view that allows new narratives and reflections in constant evolution. Editor: Exactly, something humble, common yet filled with nuance.