The German painter Eberhard Havekost was born in 1967 in Dresden, emigrating from East to West Germany in 1989. His prolific painting practice has maintained a relatively detached approach in comparison to the photograph-based paintings of Dresden-born painter Gerhard Richter, where manipulations of an original image raise questions about authenticity and memory. Havekost’s source material is varied and often ambiguous, compiled from a collection of photos and video footage which he would manipulate digitally and print on inkjet as the source for his paintings. Through cropping or isolation of his subjects, Havekost often leaves the narrative of his paintings entirely up to interpretation. In Wald (1998), the lower body of a figure looking through binoculars disintegrates towards the margin with horizontal smudges that reveal underlying layers. While the subject may be as innocent as a birdwatcher, the stance recalls historical images of authoritarian figures, including Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, in the act of observing military actions.