3472 - RAINER FETTING

RAINER FETTING (Wilhelmshaven 1949–lives and works, among other places, in Berlin) Rumpelstilzchen. 1990. Oil, sand and pine cones on canvas. In three parts. First part verso numbered, inscribed, titled, signed, dated and inscribed with medium: 290/450 B 199 1 Teil Rumpelstilzchen Fetting Jan 90 Öl / Sand Tannenzapfen. Second part verso inscribed: B 199 2 Teil. Third part verso inscribed: B 199 3 Teil. 290 × 450 cm, each 290 × 150 cm. Provenance: - Galerie Raab, Berlin. - Lichtenstein Collection, acquired from the above gallery in 1990. - Swiss collection. Exhibited: Berlin/Weimar 1990, Rainer Fetting. Berlin/New York. Gemälde und Skulpturen, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, DDR, Nationalgalerie, 17 March–15 April 1990/Stadtmuseum Weimar, Kabinett am Goetheplatz, 14 July–23 August 1990, cat. p. 62, no. 30. Rainer Fetting’s work is closely connected to the social and historical upheavals of his time. His painting, however, goes beyond the depiction of actual events, opening up a layered dialogue between history, the present and cultural memory. In ‘Rumpelstilzchen’, Fetting combines contemporary imagery, such as the people chipping away at the Berlin Wall, with a character from a Brothers Grimm fairy tale. Both suggest different ways of confronting the past, linking historical events to a literary tradition. The ‘Mauerspechte’, or ‘wall peckers’, who chipped pieces off the Berlin Wall following its fall in 1989, symbolise the end of Germany’s division and the beginning of a new historical reality. The Wall was far more than a physical barrier: it embodied Germany’s political and ideological division and shaped the lives of generations. Its opening and demolition marked a profound transformation. In art, this historical event becomes an image of transience, liberation and new beginnings. ‘Rumpelstilzchen’ introduces another dimension. The Brothers Grimm fairy tale is deeply rooted in German cultural history, evoking a world at once familiar and mysterious. At its centre is a figure whose power depends on a secret and can be broken only by discovering his name. Deception, revelation and escape from an apparently hopeless situation shape the narrative. Just as the fairy tale takes an unexpected turn, the fall of the Berlin Wall transformed a political order that had endured for decades. The Wall and the fairy tale form an unexpected connection. Fetting links a moment of upheaval to a figure whose power depends on a name. ‘Rumpelstilzchen’ thus becomes an image of the significance of boundaries – and of the moment when they fall.