Lull

Walter Oltmann
Lull, 2021
Oil paint, copper foil, and oil pastel on paper
Work: 56 x 75 cm

Oltmann’s animal subjects are at times playful and humorous but also include images of dead or near-dead creatures. The latter serve as memorials to animals that are not only dying, but literally ‘dying off’, i.e. on the edge of extinction. Images of fossils and skeletal remains similarly function as symbols of posteriority. As portraits of loss, they are meditations on the consequences and impact of environmental distress.