Ansicht von Grötzingen bei Durlach

With his social caricatures and considerably quieter landscapes from the 1920s, Georg Scholz was a representative of New Objectivity. After World War I he lived in Grötzingen, near Karlsruhe, where he painted numerous landscapes. His »View from Grötzingen, near Durlach« is extremely clear and orderly.

A sweeping view of the hilly landscape, partly in sunlight, partly concealed in shadow, depicts the intrusion of a technicized world into a supposed idyll. The factories at the bottom left of the picture extend diagonally to the center, forming a stark contrast to the romantic stereotype of a rural landscape. However, Scholz leaves it up to us whether we view this clash critically or with a sense of equanimity.

The factory buildings blend smoothly into the panorama—associated class conflicts and environmental damage are nowhere to be seen. Scholz’s vision registers the world coolly and without judging, while his realistic and almost naïve-looking, but also typifying, manner of painting, appears to capture a model world whose law-like organization is nevertheless open to question.