Edelweisspiraten (Edelweiss Pirates)
Marcel Odenbach
German, born 1953
2001
A mixed-media drawing and collage in which Odenbach constructs edelweiss flowers from cut printed text combined with watercolor, gouache, and pencil to fold language into a botanical emblem and unsettle its meaning.
The white, text-covered petals leap forward against a dense, shadowy green wash, so the flowers read as both delicate natural forms and as clipped, headline-like intrusions into the painted foliage.
By rendering a familiar alpine motif as fragmented text and paint—and by invoking the Edelweiss Pirates—Odenbach links collage and appropriation to questions of German memory, showing how symbols carry contested political histories.
Medium
Watercolor, pencil, cut-and-pasted printed paper, and gouache on seven pieces of paper
Dimensions
Each: 14 1/8 x 18 3/4" (35.9 x 47.6 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
The Judith Rothschild Foundation Contemporary Drawings Collection Gift
Accession
2561.2005.a-g
Palette
Exhibitions
