II. 2002 – 2008 Arbeitswelt in den USA - Tylle, H. D.

Shift”) are about working conditions which are burdensome, alienating and isolating. Yet, there is
none of that compassion-focused esthetics which characterized the “misery paintings” of earlier
generations, but only objective demonstrations of working environments.
(2) The same is true for his second thematic area: the vastness of industrial machinery makes the
individual appear small and insignificant, while technical equipment is increasingly crowding out any
human labor from the immediate production process. Tylle had already begun to address this issue
in his early works, and it is now also in evidence in his recent paintings (“Wintershall Triptych”,
“Printshop Painting”). In fact, Tylle’s thematic choices are clearly in line with the findings and theory
of today’s industrial sociology. Tylle has continued these “workplace studies” in his paintings of the
last ten years. The pictures he has created in the United States since 2002 and the large number of
works from his “Trip through Germany” continually focus on the relationship between the worker and
the machine. Sometimes, we see just a small number of workers facing highly complex production
facilities, yet they are not submitted to those machines but they are professionally in control. In this
way, Tylle also creates realistic portraits of industrial workplaces, showing scenarios which are typical
of a given plant or company while at the same time giving special dignity to human labor – again,
without any of the heroic portrayals that frequently characterized depictions of labor in the past.
(3) The third thematic area we wish to highlight here is the impact of industry on nature. Tylle’s preunification
East German paintings, his “P+S Steelworks”, “Peat Cutting” and also his shipyard paintings
show not only working environments and conditions but particularly also nature in a used-up
state, the anti-esthetics of nature transformed by labor, devastation and the results of a short-term
functional approach that is purely concerned with economic deliverables. This perspective, too, had
its historical counterpart in the 19th century, with a range of ecologically focused paintings (e.g. Cot-
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