Reflections and currents

From the late 1970s and onwards, Lennart Rodhe dedicated himself to patterns and reflections. The reflections had appeared in his works already in the 1940s, as in his lithograph The Green House from 1947, in his Sign Figures, and later in the Shiva prints. Reflections create new rooms in the image, and they play with the pictorial surface and depth. Reflections also feature in his geometrical patterns – by twisting and reversing a repeat print, he created larger and more complex interweaving shapes (Mogador, 1980). In a series of prints, Rodhe explores reflections on the water on the theme of Currents. Through the shimmering and glittering surface, we glimpse a fragmentary image of the river bed. (Spring Water Fragmented Right, 1983) These prints were used as cartoons for several large, hand-knotted carpets made for Kasthall, including (Eau de source, 1983 och The Green Current I (1986), of which several are in the Foundation’s collection.