Lace
Notes : Walter Oltmann (b. 1960) is Senior Lecturer in Fine Arts at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. He has received numerous awards including the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Visual Arts (2001), and the Sasol Wax Art Award (2007). In 2014 his solo show 'In the Weave' was presented at the Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg. His works are held in all major national public collections.
Lace, a delicate hardground etching, follows the themes of Oltmann's work in his 2013 Penumbra exhibition at the Goodman Gallery. The opposing ideas of the intimacy and fragility of the human form, and the invasive 'x-ray line' of modern medical analysis merge to create a work of poignant and unsettling beauty.
Meticulously line etched in copper, but printed in relief so as to get very thin and light lines against a black background, Lace features an image of a child skeleton lightly held in fragile doiley-like form, like moth-eaten lace. The work was printed by Niall Bingham of Wits School of Arts, on yellowish Hahnemuhle paper. Signed in pencil on the lower right hand edge.
Artthrob. (2016) Walter Oltmann, Lace, [Online] Available: http://artthrob.co.za/product/walter-oltmann-lace/ [20.08.2016]
