Link to Peter Schmidt: Anker - Steinbaukasten Home Page...

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Richter's Anchor® Stone Building Sets, the home page for March, 2010
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Mr. Hardy has impeccable taste indeed. After recently discovering that as a child, Peter played with Richters Anker - Steinbaukasten, or Richter's Anchor® Stone Building Sets, I made contact with the "Pope" of Anchor Builders, Mr. George Hardy. I shared with him some images of Peter's work, that I felt were directly influenced by his past with the stones. He found them to be authentic depictions of Anchor Buildings, and has chosen to feature some of Peter's "Buildings" at his website for the month of March. Anchor Builders hail from all over the world, and tend to be passionate about this work. They are very supportive each others efforts as well as of George and his mission to spread knowledge of this 120 year old classic. I have recently received my first three sets, Nos. 6, 6A, and 8A. The stones are precisely molded, and the material is tactile. I feel these sets would make a great tool for young people, as hand eye coordination can be developed, as well as architectural imagination. Thus far I have executed six of the historic constructions illustrated in the books that came with my stones. My goal is to build Peter's "Tower", for which I will require considerably more stones.
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My thanks to Mr. George Hardy for sharing with his friends the work of Peter Schmidt, and in kind opening our eyes to the world of Anchor. A visit to Mr. Hardy's website is highly recommended: www.ankerstein.org
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Taking Tiger Mountain Collection...

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"Taking Tiger Mountain(By Strategy)", Peter Schmidt, lithographs, 1974
Pictured here are 37 of 1500 unique prints. Four from the Eno LP, and 33 from our collection.
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http://www.peterschmidtweb.com/TakingTigerMountain.html
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Graham Greene meets Peter Schmidt...

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"Autobiographical Monoprints", exhibition book pages, Peter Schmidt, 1970
From the Lisson Gallery(Collection of John Emr)
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Recently added to our catalogue were ten of the "Monoprint" collages. As such, I revisited the exhibition book that accompanied the exhibit. Along with the "Analytical Introduction, Jasia Reichardt did an analysis of two of the Monoprints. As shown above, the item numbers, is a drawing Peter did, one of eight, which was apparently done for a Grahan Greene short story. For a few days now, I've been in contact with rare book sellers, Greene affectionados, his official biographer Norman Sherry, and the original writer of this analysis, Jasia. Nothing firm to report, though I'm hopeful we can locate where indeed these drawings appeared. They would represent the earliest examples of Peter's work.
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If you are or become aware of where these ink drawings were published, please contact me: info@PeterSchmidtWeb.com or PeterSchmidtWeb@aol.com
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Anker Steinbaukasten...

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"Tower", Peter Schmidt, watercolor painting, 1976
(Collection of the Schmidt Family)
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Peter seems to have looked back on a stressful, war torn childhood as inspiration for some of his work. In his autobiographical "Monoprint" series, he used not only his old art works as raw materials, but pages from childhood books, and photos from early in his life. As with the "Mandala Castles", Peter used as a point of reference for "Tower", a childhood toy known in his native Germany as Richters Anker Steinbaukasten, and Richter's Anchor Stone Building Sets to the English speaking world. These sets were first manufactured in 1880 in Germany, and were sold all over Europe and the United States. Production was halted after the godless Soviet Union annexed East Germany, fearing too many people used the blocks to build model churches and cathedrals. A few years after reunification, they were to be produced once again using the original molds. These blocks were enjoyed by Albert Einstein as a child.
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"Anker Stones consist of quartz sand, linseed oil, colour pigments and chalk - for over 125 years the formula has remained the same. The use of 100% natural ingredients meets the highest ecological standards." - The Formula, from the Anker website.
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The Anker homepage(multi lingual): www.ankerstein.de
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"Anchor stones have been used for what I call "easy art". Gluing stones on a board in an interesting 3-D pattern. The old stones make more attractive "easy art". Of course, this type of art is quite different from the art of Peter Schmidt. His "Anchor" buildings are quite true to the Anchor stones themselves and he has worked the buildings into the background very well." - George Hardy
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Mr. George Hardy, worldwide Anker expert: www.ankerstein.org
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Peter Schmidt Web, acclimating...

. Peter Schmidt
. Brian Eno
. Simon Hilton
With the help Maria Keirnan, many of the images you've seen posted here at the Peter Schmidt Web Blog over the past months are being added to the main website. The Simon Hilton Collection is being added to the Early Works gallery, a few more Taking Tiger Mountain prints to that gallery, a new sub section, Sketchbooks, is being added to the top of the Miscellaneous section, the existing Letters section is being moved to the top here as well. We have completely renovated the External Links. We are adding French, Italian, German, Spanish and Icelandic translations of Peter's Biography. We have added several photographs of Peter from his early childhood through his teens and beyond to the Images of Him section. The website updates are a big undertaking, so please be patient.
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A million thanks and salutations to Maria for the time, effort and care she takes in doing this work.
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www.PeterSchmidtWeb.com
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"Cubism and After: Departures"...

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Stills from the BBC film "Cubism and After: Departures", directed by Michael Gill, 1961

Original air date 29, October, 1962 (Images provided by Rory Walsh)

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This elusive film was found due to the unrelenting diligence and determination of

our good friend Rory. Perhaps next, he can convince the BBC to show this film again...

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Shown here: the title frames, several stills of Peter, Peter drawing Ruth with their black

cat looking for trouble, and two of Peter playing with his son Simon.

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"Ovoid"...

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"Ovoid", Peter Schmidt, watercolour, 21" x 16", 1970

(Collection of Simon Hilton)

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The Mandala Castles...

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"Mandala Castles(City, Country, Mountain, Sea)", Peter Schmidt, silk screen with watercolors, 1979 (Collection of Alain D'Hooghe)

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These four paintings were among the last works made by Peter and were first exhibited at the Paul Ide Gallery in Brussels in 1980. The show called "More Than Nothing", featured collaborations between Peter and Brian Eno. Alain D'Hooghe, a very dear friend of the artist and the curator for this exhibit, has told me Peter's intention was to paint two more Mandala Castles, "Tundra" and "Desert". Peter's original castle line drawing, I believe, was loosely based on a childhood toy* which traveled with him from Germany to England, was then made into a silk screen, and formed the bones of each of these paintings.

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* Richter's Anchor Stone Building Sets or Richters Anker-Steinbaukästen, more on these in a future post...

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