Plowing farmer 

Curator: This print, held here at the Städel Museum, is titled "Plowing Farmer." It’s a work by Fritz Boehle, using the techniques of woodcut, engraving, drawing and ink on paper. Editor: Immediately, I get a sense of toil, of really backbreaking work, but there's a rhythmic beauty to the composition. What strikes you most about it? Curator: It is a hard life portrayed unflinchingly, isn’t it? The composition is a marvel of lines and layering – it pulls your eye across the field, almost mimicking the repetitive labor depicted. I'm also caught by the detail Boehle manages in a print like this. The man’s clothing, the horse’s musculature… extraordinary! Editor: Indeed! This "genre-painting" seems so embedded within its own moment of rural social structure and the lives intertwined between humans, land and animals. I imagine the realities for farmers were stark, challenging the mythic or romanticised notions of country living. There's an absence of grandeur and that resonates strongly with its apparent realism. Curator: Yes, and there's an inherent social commentary – a respect, maybe even an awe – for those involved in agriculture and how essential the labour they are carrying out is for society’s wider structure. It invites the viewer to consider their place in the network too. Do you see him perhaps highlighting the farmer’s position in a rapidly industrializing world? Editor: Definitely. I am intrigued, however, by how a print can also become an act of documentation itself. Like, what are the affordances in disseminating this through printed mass? Was Boehle also engaging with a wider activist agenda by rendering farm workers more visible to a potentially distanced urban viewership? Curator: That's really interesting, a piece meant for mass distribution depicting what was possibly perceived by some as a dying lifestyle, a social statement, almost a piece of propaganda? It really underlines that what looks like simplicity and realism, has the potential to provoke critical conversation. Editor: Precisely! Boehle's choice to depict "Plowing Farmer" reminds us of the intricate link between art, labour and societal values. And how important it is to stay grounded when the world around us is rapidly shifting. Curator: Well said, it’s offered me plenty to reflect on.