Philipp Otto Runge – Scherenschnitte: Die Blumen 1794-1809

Digital drawings of Philipp Otto Runge's botanical cutouts have been produced that can be realised by a laser cutting device. Akin to the Romanticists' central Leitmotiv of the ‘Blue Flower’ (Novalis), the cutouts oscillate between sublime geometry and exact observation. Runge would often add the paper cutouts to his letters (a.o. to J.W. v. Goethe) inviting the recipients to paste them onto coloured walls. The work was to act as a ‘Trojan Horse’ infiltrating the homes of his unsuspecting contemporaries with works of sincerity, contemplation and enchantment - in contrast to the prevalent decorative aesthetic of his time.