In Friedrich Zettl’s dragon paintings, sweeping strokes and pooled colour suggest bodies in motion. Some works approach a recognisable creature; others leave only a curve, a dark head-like mass or the impression of flight. The selection moves from layered colour fields to more isolated forms on white paper.
Newer Ink Works on Dragons
Earlier Ink Works Portraying Dragons
Second Series of Dragons
Reading the Dragon Forms
The newer works give the surrounding colour an active role. In the pink-toned horizontal composition, a long curved form passes through a shifting grey field. In the turquoise work, dark crossing strokes make the dragon seem inseparable from its setting.
The earlier group isolates green-grey forms against white. Their rounded, cellular textures and broad bends suggest coiled bodies without describing scales or limbs in detail. The empty intervals are part of their movement.
The second series varies the gesture more sharply. Red and pink strokes form a pair of open curves; a green work stretches two dark masses around a pale centre. Elsewhere, dense brown lines gather into a nest-like structure.
These dragons belong to the wider development of Abstract Surrealism in Zettl’s work. They offer a way to follow how a brush mark can become an imagined creature while remaining visibly a stroke of paint.
Related articles: Abstract Surrealism | Fauna & Spirit | Gestural Landscape
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Available Artworks
Original works are available on FriedrichZettl.com and Saatchi Art