Peter Schmersal
04 Mar - 22 Apr 2006
PETER SCHMERSAL
"Recent paintings"
From March 4 to April 22, 2006
Tuesday – Saturday, from 11h to 19h
Opening Saturday March 4 in the presence of the artist
For his fourth exhibition in Paris, Peter Schmersal is presenting a collection of recent paintings. Since 1990, the date when Karsten Greve exhibited his work for the first time, painting has seen an incredible rise in interest in France, considerably modifying its critical reception. But Peter Schmersal does not seem to be moved by the announcements these past few years of a return to painting any more than he was by a previous proclamation of its death.
Of course we would be mistaken to approach these paintings from the angle of novelty, just as we would be in seeing an academism in his attachment to pictorial tradition. In these last paintings, with such evocative titles as - Demoiselle, Odalisque rouge, Baigneuses, Femme de Watteau or Costume de Vincent - it is assuredly not without a certain sense of humour that Peter Schmersal appropriates past works that are clearly identifiable. But in referring to the history of art of celebrated paintings, he is pursuing research that is common to the ensemble of his work.
Still life, landscape, architecture and portraiture, which capture the painter’s attention, find their strength in the painter’s elaboration process. When he evokes objects that attract him for their texture, for their materiality, or the link that unites them to him, Peter Schmersal affirms: “In a way I want to get rid of the object through painting”. The object as such is not the subject, but the observation and the act of painting within a spiritual as much as a sensual approach.
If he initially favoured small formats, Peter Schmersal now works on large canvases, and has also broadened his colour palette, which was formerly rather reduced. However, he still proceeds with a great economy of means: with few details, his direct brush strokes and thick, textured touches give life to the painting.
A contemporary wanderer, he observes the world that surrounds him in paint and places it in the foreground of the scene of perception. A close-up on a face or a body, a pause on an oeuvre, a row of houses or a glimpse of sky; the framing of his paintings dissects the real and delivers it in fragments.
Born in 1952, Peter Schmersal lives and works in Wuppertal, Germany.
For further information, please contact Eloïse Guénard at the gallery.
eloiseguenard@karstengreve.fr
© Peter Schmersal
La Plaine de Croix, 2005
"Recent paintings"
From March 4 to April 22, 2006
Tuesday – Saturday, from 11h to 19h
Opening Saturday March 4 in the presence of the artist
For his fourth exhibition in Paris, Peter Schmersal is presenting a collection of recent paintings. Since 1990, the date when Karsten Greve exhibited his work for the first time, painting has seen an incredible rise in interest in France, considerably modifying its critical reception. But Peter Schmersal does not seem to be moved by the announcements these past few years of a return to painting any more than he was by a previous proclamation of its death.
Of course we would be mistaken to approach these paintings from the angle of novelty, just as we would be in seeing an academism in his attachment to pictorial tradition. In these last paintings, with such evocative titles as - Demoiselle, Odalisque rouge, Baigneuses, Femme de Watteau or Costume de Vincent - it is assuredly not without a certain sense of humour that Peter Schmersal appropriates past works that are clearly identifiable. But in referring to the history of art of celebrated paintings, he is pursuing research that is common to the ensemble of his work.
Still life, landscape, architecture and portraiture, which capture the painter’s attention, find their strength in the painter’s elaboration process. When he evokes objects that attract him for their texture, for their materiality, or the link that unites them to him, Peter Schmersal affirms: “In a way I want to get rid of the object through painting”. The object as such is not the subject, but the observation and the act of painting within a spiritual as much as a sensual approach.
If he initially favoured small formats, Peter Schmersal now works on large canvases, and has also broadened his colour palette, which was formerly rather reduced. However, he still proceeds with a great economy of means: with few details, his direct brush strokes and thick, textured touches give life to the painting.
A contemporary wanderer, he observes the world that surrounds him in paint and places it in the foreground of the scene of perception. A close-up on a face or a body, a pause on an oeuvre, a row of houses or a glimpse of sky; the framing of his paintings dissects the real and delivers it in fragments.
Born in 1952, Peter Schmersal lives and works in Wuppertal, Germany.
For further information, please contact Eloïse Guénard at the gallery.
eloiseguenard@karstengreve.fr
© Peter Schmersal
La Plaine de Croix, 2005