Kunstenaar Albrecht Felix Reicher in zijn atelier in Amsterdam after 1903

Sigmund Löw made this photograph of Kunstenaar Albrecht Felix Reicher in his atelier in Amsterdam, a scene saturated with art and artistic labor. Imagine the artist stepping back, squinting, head cocked to one side, brush hovering over the canvas, as he attempts to resolve the image plane of the painting he is working on in his studio. I wonder what it must have been like to be in that room: the patterned wallpaper, paintings stacked salon-style, landscapes, and cityscapes as backdrops. The textures layer upon one another creating a space of dreams, and illusions, and a feeling that you’re somehow both inside and outside at the same time. The framed canvases, arranged in a non-hierarchical order, create a sense of playful experimentation, reminding me that paintings have the capacity to open the world. They are objects and portals all at once. Reicher's studio offers a glimpse into an ongoing exchange of visual ideas, an exchange that continues to inspire artists today.