Bonenstaken 1892 - 1928

Johannes Löhr made this etching called Bonenstaken – which means bean stakes – and to me, it feels like a kind of organized chaos. There is a lovely, scratchy texture, and the light seems to flicker. Look closely at the way the dense foliage is rendered with a mass of tiny, energetic lines. It is as if Löhr is trying to capture not just the appearance of the plants, but also their feeling of wild, untamed growth. It's a world of tangled vines, where everything is interconnected. The whole scene feels intimate and personal, like a glimpse into a hidden corner of a garden. The bean stakes themselves almost disappear amongst all this. There is something of the same close attention to the everyday in the work of the better-known artist Käthe Kollwitz. Both were fascinated by the poetry of the ordinary. Ultimately, Löhr’s Bonenstaken is an image about the way nature thrives in unexpected places.