About the Work
The viewer gets to see very little of Kröllwitz, a suburb of Halle an der Saale. In earthy shades of brown and ochre, he is presented instead a gloomy backyard scenario of roofs, facades and strangely lifeless-looking tree structures. A bulky, metallic grey, equine-looking mass rises up in the right foreground of the picture. Its faceted surface recalls Cubism and, as an abstract element, provides an exciting contrast to the world of objects. Willi Sitte's early work in particular is rich in allusions, yet much remains strangely unspoken. The artist repeatedly alienates his unattractive, monumental scenarios, contrasting strong planarity with spatial depth and making modelled corporeality clash with the ornamental. Sitte is one of the most prominent, but also most colourful, figures among the painters of the GDR. As he rose in the Communist Party nomenklatura, his initial openness, searching and non-conformity gave way to a realism which consciously took into account his proximity to the state and the political services he was called upon to perform.
