Hans Bischoffshausen

A horizontal, broken line gave this late work its name owing to formal analogies with a horizon. The materials in various layers accentuate the striking composition. It was inspired by the artist’s trip to Muggia near Trieste, where, looking at the horizontal separation of sea and sky, he realized the extent to which our surroundings can be simplified. This discovery completed his search for possibilities of reduction that was a guiding influence throughout his oeuvre. While in his early work, forms in flat relief still appear, in around 1955 these evolved into impasto relief. By the 1960s only the ridges left by the movements of the palette knife remained as a pictorial element. A typical characteristic of this series, and especially exciting in this work, is the lower section of the image with its striking, irregularly distributed raised dabs of filler. The opening of the canvas, revealing a segment of gilding on the lower edge, conveys the impression of a curved horizon. In the viewer’s mind’s-eye they are hovering above the surface of the earth.