WAGNER + PARTNER : Peter Dreher’s Clover Flower

For the special occasion of artist Peter Dreher’s 80^th birthday, Berlin gallery Wagner + Partner will present his series Die Kleebluem (The Clover Flower) on September 8^th.

Like no other, Peter Dreher investigates the question of repetition, examining concurrently the validity of painting as a contemporary means of expression in art. His series of miniatures, Die Kleeblume (The Clover Flower), produced from 1976 to 2011, is indicative of his steadfast production beyond the art market hype and sits alongside his most famous series, Tag um Tag guter Tag(Day by Day Good Day).

By means of a withered and over the years shriveled clover flower, Peter Dreher expands our perception of paintings’ qualities. He excels by creating work upon work with exceptional discipline and benign attention to detail. Dreher’s paintings appear pleasingly unfashionable. They resist fast consumption and all that is loud and superficial. They require time. And they demand immersion, without being heavy. Dreher began his magnum opus, Tag um Tag guter Tag (Day by Day Good Day) in 1974 and continues it to this day, receiving ongoing recognition and critical acclaim. To date he has produced over 5,000 paintings of the water glass. Every year at least 50 paintings are created under the same conditions, thus always showing the same glass. The format and size remain the same, as does the object’s composition. The mere fact that the series grows, illustrates that the painter does not just wish to convey the object – the glass itself. He contemplates the changing interior that occurs due to the fluctuating light, perspective, and time of day—all of which are never identical. In this way he frees himself from the object and redefines the mindfulness of his practice. Dreher himself says, “to get excited about painting one doesn’t necessarily have to change the motif.”

Alongside his series of water glasses, which ultimately represents his key work, there are always additional series: landscapes, skies, skulls, doll heads, flowers and oceans, with the silver goblets being the latest cycle. A succession of solo and group exhibitions in Berlin, Bologna, Heilbronn and Freiburg have focussed on Dreher’s work; an artist who has made the process of painting itself his subject matter. This approach in contemporary painting is arguably unrivalled and one-of-a-kind. Consequently in recent years a younger audience has grown incredibly fond of Peter Dreher’s work. Simultaneously, Curators also position Dreher’s works in exhibitions with younger artists and thus it is constantly received afresh.

This year Peter Dreher turns 80. For decades the Emeritus Professor of Painting has belonged to the most esteemed post-1945 German artists. He studied in the fifties at the Karlsruhe Academy of Fine Arts and was one of Erich Heckel’s students. As a professor at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe he was an important influence on a younger generation of now internationally renowned artists such as Anselm Kiefer. Dreher lives in Freiburg and in St Märgen in the Upper Black Forest.