A scholarship enabled Rainer Fetting to visit New York for the first time in 1978. No only did he find new motifs there, he also found himself in an urban setting that was much different from Berlin. His works from this time reflect the special NYC atmosphere. In the years that followed, he repeatedly returned to the American metropolis, where he also lived from time to time. The skyline of New York, the Yellow Cabs, but also numerous groups of portraits with new models were created. And new materials also found their way into his art. At the beginning of the 1980s, Fetting created works for which he mounted wooden planks on canvas, painting over them and integrating them into the pictorial composition. As early as in 1984, Marlborough Gallery in New York showed his wood pictures in an exhibition, including figurative representations. In retrospect, he reports:
The wood pictures were created right at the beginning, after I had moved to New York in 1983. My studio was on 23rd Street between 11th and Westside Highway on Hudson River, today a civilized park area for pedestrians, joggers and bikers. The run-down piers that were no longer in use were mainly used by the gay outsiders. For me being from the German coast, the area always offered me a chance to escape the urban jungle. You could see far into the distance along the Hudson River and the Statue of Liberty. The shipping warehouses were soon demolished, leaving only the platforms. On one of the piers, I saw homeless people tearing off the oak planks for their fires. I decided to take some loose planks with me to work them into my pictures.” (Rainer Fetting, April 2018)

As is so typical of his style of painting, in "Quiet Pier" he captures the cityscape on the pier with strong, impasto colors. But something is different than in most other works from this period. Normally, Fetting's big city pictures are loud. Hardly any other painter of his generation knows how to paint hectic city life on canvas. The "Quiet Pier", on the other hand, is outside of this constant noise level. A rarity, as every city dweller knows. The skyscrapers of the skyline in the background appear static, surrounded by straight lines, the pier like a lonely stage, deserted. The pulse visibly calms down, the big city takes a break for a moment and the pier becomes a peaceful haven. Composition and perspective allow the view to wander over the pier with its real wooden plank over to the horizon in the distance. [AR]