1191 - Otto Eglau, abstract composition with yellow circle, etching by the Sylt printmaker, 1980

Otto Eglau, abstract composition with yellow circle, etching by the Sylt printmaker, 1980 (1917 Berlin – 1988 Kampen on Sylt), etching/paper, signed and dated 80 lower right. Abstract composition in black, grey and white: above a black dome and pale, angularly broken planes a net-like etched structure with frayed edges is stretched; at lower right a yellow circle sits on a white triangular plane. The planes are etched in fine grain. Age-appropriate good condition, slightly stained. Image 18 x 15 cm (HxW), mount, behind glass, framed, frame bumped, overall 38.5 x 34.5 cm (HxW). Eglau's sheets grow out of the landscape of the North Sea coast but detach themselves early from depiction: tidal channels, nets, fish traps and creels become signs that he sets against one another in etched textures and flat contrasts. A single accent of colour regularly serves as a point of rest within the otherwise black-and-white surface. Parts of his written estate are held in the German Art Archive of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg; his graphic work was catalogued in 1966 by Hanns Theodor Flemming.