" l i n k e d "

Oil painting:
Monday Morning (1984), 136x108cm

Rug:
Rajasthan3|NaturalAnthracite, 300x250cm

There is a total of 26 combinations of which a painting is arranged with the rug in the background.

In a sense simple, the rug is just the background like a frame for the paintings. This is exemplified in the painting “Monday Morning”.

Oil painting:
Finale - allegro ma non troppo (2007), 90x140cm

Rug:
Feathers Lane|PinkAbbey, 300x250cm

For most of the paintings we managed to find a combination where the carpet can enhance the subtle meaning of the painting.This way the painting and the rug mesh together.

The tilting millstone in this painting which is induced by the jumping off of the “reliable” is evidently represented in the background of the rug.

The horizontal lines of the peacock's feathers indicate the equilibrium that existed a short time before.

The jump-off ofthe “reliable” is on the same time the end of the person sitting in front of him. But this donkey-like figure is unaware of his upcoming demise, so he continuous to play peacefully.

The painting: “Finale - allegro ma non troppo”, was one of the last art works of Wolfgang Lettl.

Oil painting:
Bankruptcy (2002), 97x83cm

Rug:
Skin Wasteland 28, 300x250cm

The spirit of this „connection“ is on one hand the harmoniousness in terms of color and shape, on the other hand the bringing together of two apparently unrelated worlds.

You will notice a correlation between the “open can” on the left of the rug with the black heaven-like body of the painting in terms of shape and color.

The face of an infant on the top right corner contrast with the non-visible head of the person in the painting.

In the painting “Bankruptcy” a well-dressed man makes himself scarce, obviously having made his profits. What remains is scrap and waste seemingly in another world, in the background formed by the rug.

Oil painting:
The Trial (1981), 118x133cm

Rug:
Crystal3|Original, 300x250cm

In my imagination a labyrinth is such a convoluted, complicated structure that anyone who ends up in it will have trouble getting out again, except perhaps by following Ariadne's thread.

Surrealism as a whole may be described as labyrinthine: many puzzles, many questions, no answers, no exit.

I wanted to approach the topic directly: by painting a labyrinth. Something like a House of Mirrors rather than an antique structure or a playful Rococo garden, but it proved impossible to represent convincingly.

I took refuge in a manageable but unreal structure, open so that one can look into it, but without an exit, even Ariadne's thread is useless here.

Maybe you are familiar with something like this from your dreams?

With Kafka it became "The Trial".

(Text: Wolfgang Lettl)

Oil painting:
The Operation (1999), 138x170cm

Rug:
Splash Supreme|DarkAuberigne, 300x250cm

Work on the preliminary drawings for the painting, "The Operation", began in mid-January, 1999.

As the military situation in Kosovo was coming to a head and Operation Allied Force, the second, so-called inter-state phase of the conflict began on March 24, 1999, the interpretation of this painting seemed obvious.

Wolfgang Lettl describes it like this: "I took up the symbol-laden theme of the “bridge” once more which I had dealt with on several pevious occasions. This time I had an unspecified battle raging on a bridge above a vertiginous abyss. Such battle images can have a strong effect in terms of movement, colour, and suspense, but it would have turned out to be a meagre affair had I not deployed the superweapon of a superpower as befits our modern times. The exact decisive moment of this unexpected blast is what I painted.
To what extent did the then current conflict in Kosovo inspire me? A little, maybe."

It was hard to imagine at the time that this painting would then acquire a second component concerning Wolfgang Lettl himself; perhaps the yellow figure leaning on one arm and reaching for its belly with the other, on the left half of the bridge. It was a medical operation with serious consequences for Wolfgang Lettl's health.

Oil painting:
High Council (2004), 116x146 cm

Rug:
Dresden 300x250cm

Aside from the harmonious colors of the painting and the rug, the painting shows Jesus carrying the cross along the shadows, which continues to the right in the pattern of the rug.

Thus, painting and rug become connected.

The various cross configurations remind us of the crown of thrones as well as thetwo-thousand-year old history of the church.

Ölgemälde:
She doesn't want to go (2006), 162x126cm

Teppich:
Kimono|LeafsGoldDawn, 300x250cm

Don't expect me to tell you a lot about Goya's Marchesa de la Solana. I copied her because I liked her so much.

I am allowed to do so, right?

I released her from her brown portrait background; I moved her slightly off-centre, and placed her in an open landscape. No, not a beautiful scenery from the South, but rather a glimpse of the Po Valley with ugly industrial architecture, and above it all, in contrast to the proud Spaniard, three rrogant airheads in an impossible flying machine.

With freshly polished shoes, though.

(Text: Wolfgang Lettl)

Oil painting:
The Allée at Borrington (1985), 128x105cm

Rug:
Woods4 | Orignial, 300x250cm

It is breathtaking how well the lights and shades of the impressionistic style of art and pointillism blend together.

Oil painting:
Augustus II. the Strong (1976), 32x55cm

Rug:
Ikat Dragon|ElectricBlue

A poem written by Wolfgang Lettl

Sommerlied

Auf meiner Brust saß ein Insekt
und krabbelte im Haar,

ich nehme an, daß dies Insekt
ein Brusthaarkrabbler war.

Er setzte sich dann voller Lust
inmitten meiner Dame Brust;

doch als kein einzges Haar er fund
verschwand er schnell im Untergrund.

Oil painting:
Die Begegnung (1985), 89x154cm

Rug:
Margarith|DeepPurple, 300x250cm

The encounter

First of all, how do I come up with the idea of dividing a bridge completely uselessly in the middle and putting the two halves against each other, and also placing them in the middle of the water, so that the people (how did they get there?) Can not get together?
Is there any meaning behind it?

I never start from what a picture should say, but only from formal ideas. Bridges have always been my favorite motifs, and I also like to paint water, and if the connection to the solid ground, a bank road, disturbed me, I simply left it out and allowed the bridge to reflect itself in its full majestic form in the middle of the water. In an attempt to create such a composition, I came up with the idea of the above-mentioned design and I think that the picture was successful.

I think I have experienced that every picture has to fulfill its own regularity and that this legitimacy with our superficial experience can still be completely nonsensical, but that often shows a deeper profound meaning when dealing with longer periods of time and questioning, for instance painting. Then the bridge, which was supposed to serve the meeting of two banks, becomes a parable for the fact that an encounter can not take place, out of human error, for instance, because the foundations are wrong.

Such mistakes never happen to our technicians, or at least so seldom that I can not remember any such or similar case. In human relationships, on the other hand, the mishaps are more common than the success of relationships. Not only between individuals but between ethnic groups, thought systems, worldviews and denominations. And these mishaps are so difficult or impossible to master, because even the foundations were planned wrongly.

(Text: Wolfgang Lettl)

Oil painting:
The Solution of the Problems (1976), 72x109cm

Rug:
Albert1|ZeroPile, 300x250cm

Wolfgang Lettl:

The Cage


Everyone needs his own cage.
We need it so that we know
where we belong:
In the cage.
The cage protects us,
it gives us safety,
we can straighten ourselves
with the help of its bars.
The cage has a double wall,
one should really say
that it has double bars
because there is an inner
and an outer cage.

We partially build
the inner cage ourselves,
partlially it is built
by the environment;
the outer cage is partially built
by the environment
and partially by ourselves.

If the cage does not have a solid base
but is only placed over you,
you can knock it over
and then you are free.
But that is very dangerous.

Oil painting:
The Assasination of Louis XIV. (1977), 95x158cm

Rug:
Cracks33|AubergineOnSalbei, 300x250cm

I drew a tree.

I liked a coffin in the branches, but it was not enough. A tree on its own is always dangerous, it has some similarity with a toilet brush. Therefore I decided to paint a forest with lots of coffins on the trees.

Louis XIV came to my mind, his wig has always fascinated me. The Sun King in the forest with coffins on the trees rests his scepter on a pile of wood. Somehow too balanced. Symmetry makes boring.

So I shot His Majesty with four golden arrows and gave myself up to the police.

(Text: Wolfgang Lettl)

Oil paintings:
Die Herrn der Nacht, Magdalena, Der Überfall (2005), jeweils 79x90cm

Rugs:
Sacred3|Original, Melancholica|Original, jeweils 300x250cm

Although tey are relativly few some black-dressd gentlemann with tophats are so rigorously hiding the infinite space, that the time contrarily to its custom has no other choice than to run from the left side to the right instead of from one depth (level) to the other, perpendicular to the intended direction.

(Text: Wolfgang Lettl)

War and Peace

In the painting "The Raid", the "heroes" occupy the left half of the painting and with disciplined stubbornness chase the doves on the other side and run their heads against the wall; an effective propaganda campaign has confirmed their conviction that always they have not only regarded the doves as their worst enemies, who are also responsible for the bad weather, but also prayed to the wrong gods and must therefore be exterminated. They have no choice but to let themselves be chased and seek their salvation in flight.

This and similar to this is the story of peace and war, that will never end. For war has its ineradicable roots not in itself, but in envy and in arrogance. And with each of those everybody would need to deal with for himself, because they obviously belong to the human basic equipment.

(Text: Wolfgang Lettl)

Oil painting:
The Tube (1988), 118x163cm

Rug:
No Honey|RedMix, 300x250cm

The surreal painting illustrates people going into a tube to find protection and security from the elements.

You need a closer view to recognize that the people leaving the tube are transformed into beetles by the force of this tube.

The rug in the background picks up the colorfulness of the picture and underlines the metamorphosis into the animalistic.

It is the job of the viewer to think about the symbolic meaning of a tube or tunnel.

Oil painting:
The Victim (1979), 70x80cm

Rug:
Parrots|Original, 300x250

If you consider the fact that both works of art (the painting and the rug) originated independent of each other, it is rather amazing how well they mesh together.

Oil painting:
The Transfiguration (1977), 89x107cm

Rug:
Mono2 Supreme|SoftBrown, 300x250cm

Drafting this painting I tried to combine a man with a bird.

I did not like this combination, so instead of one bird I took a flock of birds.

Drafting I always aim to develop interesting shapes. The meaning of the painting thus created does not matter at this stage.

Talking about "pictorial form", I understand not only objects, but also movement, colors, light and the interaction of these elements.

Gradually - if everything goes well, a sens develops out of this interaction.

Looking at the "Transfiguration" a frail old man is shown from behind.
He is at the end of his life.

Top down he turns into a swarm of white birds. That means death, but not the end, because the birds stand for survival in another dimension, in another world, "The Transfiguration" shows dying. But not only the "dying away", but also the "dying into", i.e. into dissolution and the redemption.

Even the empty bobbins indicate that it is coming to an end, that the thread of life has come to its end.

The yellowish-brown tint of the otherwise empty soil turns into a blue full of expectation and finally to the cheering joy of the crazy flock of birds.

(Text: Wolfgang Lettl)

Oil painting:
The Judgement (1990), 127x134cm

Rug:
Splash5|Hemp, 300x250cm

The judgement – and then this rug in the colors of a burst paint bomb – it seems to be dropped on the ground at random, hardly predictable yellow and red ink spots from a subtle pen – but now you must try to live with it.

The black spot/dot on the ground seems to be the signature.