Peter Ruehle
Komezuka is the name of a volcanic cone in southern Japan, amidst the Aso massif. Its green grass cover conveys a profound sense of peace. Translated, “Komezuka” means “rice hill”, as the small mountain resembles an upside-down rice bowl. The Komezuka cone also recalls the Herodium in the West Bank south of Jerusalem, thus creating references to the history of a long-contested territory and and the ongoing challenges of living in peace in a specific context.
The series of “dot paintings” from which this picture comes, which includes various views of landscapes, is precisely about such individual associations: in the “dot paintings”, the foregrounds are coarsely gridded and consist of dots. These black-and-white dot structures lose sharpness with increasing distance from the image, shifting into numerous shades of gray at a specific point, depending on the viewer’s eye. The flat representation becomes a three-dimensional one. From this “individual point”, at which the eye no longer simply sees, the brain takes over and creates spatiality. The horizon line lies approximately in the golden ratio – although not in the lower part of the image, as is usual in landscape painting, but in the upper part.
When looking at the landscape and into the landscape, the painter also associates peace – first and foremost. For only this allows a landscape to develop its own atmosphere.
Peter Ruehle lives and works in Berlin.
“Komezuka”, 2024, oil and ink on gesso on linen (40x30cm)