Saturday, February 7, 2009
Friday, February 6, 2009
Peter Schmidt/Brian Eno at MOCA
TO ILLUSTRATE AND MULTIPLY: AN OPEN BOOK
(a few screen shots from the interactive page)
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Peter Schmidt and Brian Eno's rare fourth edition of "Oblique Strategies"
is part of a group exhibit in downtown Los Angeles at:
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MOCA Museum Of Contemporary Art
MOCA Pacific Design Center
8687 Melrose Ave.
8687 Melrose Ave.
Design Plaza G102
West Hollywood, CA 90069
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A link to the museum: http://www.moca.org/museum/moca_pdc.php
A link to the interactive page: http://www.moca.org/openbook/sequences.php
A link to the interactive page: http://www.moca.org/openbook/sequences.php
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Also featured in this exhibition are, among many, Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, and Peter's friend Jan Voss. Jan runs a first rate art book shop in Amsterdam called Boekie Woekie. Aside from books, he also has rare prints and muliples that may be something you've been looking for. He has a copy of the catalogue from Peter Schmidt's 1995 retrospective in Iceland in the shop right now. Please check it out sometime at: http://www.boekiewoekie.com/
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Taking Tiger Mountain 17/18 of 1500
Monday, January 26, 2009
Taking Tiger Mountain 15/16 of 1500
(Collection of and with kind permission of John Fitzpatrick)
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(Collection of and with kind permission of John Fitzpatrick)
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Sunday, January 25, 2009
A Peter Schmidt painting from Belgium...
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(Collection of and with kind permission of Yves Lorson)
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Yves bought this painting in 1979 in Antwerp
at a Peter Schmidt/Brian Eno exhibition.
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Saturday, January 24, 2009
Taking Tiger Mountain, 13/14 of 1500
(Collection of and with kind permission of John Fitzpatrick)
(Collection of and with kind permission of John Fitzpatrick)
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Photographs of fourteen of Peter's "Taking Tiger Mountain" prints have been donated by John Fitzpatrick. PeterSchmidtWeb now has assembled a total of twenty six of these portraits of Brian Eno for your perusal. I'll be adding one or two here at the blog every few days, and ultimately adding them all to the catalogue, found at: http://www.peterschmidtweb.com/
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We are no longer making a brick, but rather building a wall.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Jasia Reichardt's Peter Schmidt painting...
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Jasia Reichardt was an early supporter and friend of Peter's. She is the curator of the Themerson Archives, which can be found here: http://www.themersonarchive.com/. Franciszka and Stephan Themerson were very active in the early days of Warsaw's avant garde film community, and later, after emigrating to London in 1948, in publishing with their Gaberbocchus Press, specializing in illustrated books for children. Peter was friends with them, and one of his "Electrostatic Portraits" is of Stephan. Jasia is very well known and regarded in London's art scene and has had a great interest in cybernetics through the years. She was the curator of the ground breaking exhibition "Cybernetic Serendipity" held at the ICA in 1968, of which Peter was the musical adivsor, and Franciszka Themerson was the designer. The exhibit toured the United States in 1969. She wrote the analytical introduction for Peter's exhibit of Autobiographical Monoprints at Lisson Gallery in 1970, and is also the sublect of one of the "Electrostatic Portraits".
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I visited with Jasia and her partner Nick Wadley at their home in London last winter and took this picture. She was a charming host, and gave me unfettered access to all of her collection of Peter's books and works. Her dedication to the Themerson's and her support have been very important and inspirations for me to follow in establishing Peter Schmidt's archive.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Rediscovered Peter Schmidt works...
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Taking Tiger Mountain - 16 takes...
The "Taking Tiger Mountain" Collection
Sixteen(with 4 from the gatefold LP)of 1500, unique prints by Peter Schmidt
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Peter Schmidt at work in his studio...
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It is here that many of his watercolor paintings were
created. This window may be familiar to those of
you who are acquainted with the paintings
"The Other House" and "Look at September, look at October".
This photograph was taken by Alain D'Hooghe.
"As with many good artists, one's admiration for Peter's work increases with familiarity. To follow the threads that are woven through his work, to watch the way that they cross and mesh with new threads and with older ones picked up again is to see a graceful and brilliant dance in motion. That this same pace and brilliance characterized his everyday life came, at first, as something of a surprise. He never raised his voice." -Brian Eno, May 1987 (printed in "Opal Information #5)
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Peter Schmidt's Cycloid II, III, VI
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Peter created the "Cycloid" prints at the Curwen Press, with assistance from master printer, Stanley Jones. Peter and Stanley had been students together at the Slade. I acquired these from a private dealer in London after an introduction from Rory Walsh. There are several more available, if you're interested and I'll provide contact information for this dealer: info@PeterSchmidtWeb.com
Peter created the "Cycloid" prints at the Curwen Press, with assistance from master printer, Stanley Jones. Peter and Stanley had been students together at the Slade. I acquired these from a private dealer in London after an introduction from Rory Walsh. There are several more available, if you're interested and I'll provide contact information for this dealer: info@PeterSchmidtWeb.com
Friday, October 17, 2008
Peter Schmidt - Evening Star

Collection of Brian Eno
This is the painting most of us know as "Evening Star". It's one of Peter Schmidt's best known works. Brian Eno bought this small acrylic of a sunset in Tenerife, long before it graced the cover of the album "Evening Star". In Peter's last letter prior to his death in the Canary Islands, to friends Eggert and Ingolfur in Iceland, he described hoping to experience once again the inspiration which caused him to create this painting(see the "Letters" section at the bottom of the "Miscellaneous" page at http://www.peterschmidtweb.com/). An image of "Evening Star" can be seen in the painting "Portrait of Eno with Allusions".
This is the painting most of us know as "Evening Star". It's one of Peter Schmidt's best known works. Brian Eno bought this small acrylic of a sunset in Tenerife, long before it graced the cover of the album "Evening Star". In Peter's last letter prior to his death in the Canary Islands, to friends Eggert and Ingolfur in Iceland, he described hoping to experience once again the inspiration which caused him to create this painting(see the "Letters" section at the bottom of the "Miscellaneous" page at http://www.peterschmidtweb.com/). An image of "Evening Star" can be seen in the painting "Portrait of Eno with Allusions".
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The artist Russell Mills described to me the technique Peter used in it's creation: "I don't think he had a specific term for it. Necessarily he worked slowly, building the painting in incremental layers of gradated washes of increasing tones from light to dark, using a gum like masking medium to protect the paler lines as the dark ones were applied. It does have a passing resemblance to the line by line process that modern inkjet printers use."
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"Evening Star", the album by Robert Fripp and Brian Eno album was recently remastered and released anew, jointly, on Fripp's Discipline and Eno's OPAL imprints. As such, the artist's will receive their full share of the royalties from it's sales. It is an important document in the canon of all three artists. "Evening Star", and the expanded, and remastered "No Pussyfooting" are now available at www.DGMLive.com and www.enoshop.co.uk.
"Evening Star", the album by Robert Fripp and Brian Eno album was recently remastered and released anew, jointly, on Fripp's Discipline and Eno's OPAL imprints. As such, the artist's will receive their full share of the royalties from it's sales. It is an important document in the canon of all three artists. "Evening Star", and the expanded, and remastered "No Pussyfooting" are now available at www.DGMLive.com and www.enoshop.co.uk.
Monday, September 8, 2008
"Flikker Painting"...
Friday, August 15, 2008
Peter Schmidt
Peter Schmidt at Galeri Sudurgata 7, Reykjavik, Iceland, 1978
Photo courtesy of The Reykjavik Museum of Photography
Friday, July 25, 2008
To Become Like Music - Peter Schmidt at Mummery+Schnelle

"For Esme", The Boyle Family archive materials, listening stations.

"Droplet", in the main space.

"For Esme" in the ancillary space.
Read an excellent review by Richard Mills at Enoweb:
http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/
Here is a small except, perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the exhibition:
"But to my mind, the greatest prize in the exhibition (which explores the connections between sound and visual material) must be the six short pieces of stereo audio by Peter Schmidt from 1969 (OK - one from 1978). They may now sound like humdrum feedback noises and tape loops but at the time they were being recorded (and these appear/claim to be among the very earliest of British audio experimental tapes in existence), they were genuinely ground-breaking. They seem quite self-conscious in places, but the naivete and assurance are quite a breath-taking combination. Wonder if Peter ever had any idea that these tapes (that were allegedly found in a bag in Norfolk) would re-surface in the 21st Century and be a point of interest, if only for the next few weeks, to a London audience?"
Note: The tapes have actually been in the care of Cally, a student of Peter's at Watford. These tapes have been transferred to digital media for this exhibit by associates of the curator, Prof. Chris Townsend, at the Department of Media Arts of the University of London.
The exhibition runs through 16 August. For more information:
http://www.mummeryschnelle.com/pages/exhibitions_current.htm
Friday, July 11, 2008
Peter Schmidt - self portrait
Peter Schmidt - Self portrait, watercolour, 9.5 x 7.5 cm, no date
(Collection and by kind permission of Adalsteinn Ingolfsson)
"I think I must have met Peter through Eggert Pétursson or Ingólfur Örn Arnarson, two Icelandic artists who had brought him to the Suðurgata 7 gallery in Reykjavik for a show.
Since I had studied art history in London and was fairly familiar with the art scene there, I naturally gravitated towards Peter. I took him on rides in my car, both around Reykjavik and the lava landscape surrounding the city.
Peter´s presence was inspiring. You felt him listening intently to whatever you had to say, and his queries were always quiet, to the point, with enough unsaid to make you think.
There was a Buddist quality about him; one felt that he had found himself an utterly peaceful level of existence. At the same time there was something sad or melancholic about him.
I remember most clearly an evening at my home, when I cooked him the simplest of meals, fresh flounder with potatoes. While I cooked Peter found an LP of mine featuring Casals playing the Bach cello suites. In the end we both sat on the floor, ate the fish and listened to the music. Peter deemed this a" perfect evening". I think it was partly as a thank you for the fish that he sent me his self portrait."
Adalsteinn Ingolfsson
This self portrait watercolor painting is thought to be the only one Peter Schmidt ever painted. Soon to be featured prominently at http://www.peterschmidtweb.com/.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Peter Schmidt - "To become like music"...
"Droplet", 1966 (collection of John Emr)
"For Esme", 1966 (collection of Rory Walsh)
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These two paintings by Peter Schmidt will be exhibited as part of a
group show called "To become like music", alongside works by
Mary Bauermeister, Mark Boyle & Joan Hills, Earle Brown,
Sylvano Bussotti, Paul Caffell, John Cage, Alexander Calder,
Nam June Paik, and Karlheinz Stockhausen.
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This exhibition is being curated by Professor Chris Townsend,
at the London gallery of Mummery+Schnelle,
83 Great Titchfield Street, W1W 6RH. The exhibition will run from
July 15 through August 9, with a private viewing July 16 from 6-8.
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Newly discovered reel to reel tapes of Peter's
sound art have been restored by the University of London's
Department of Media Arts, and will accompany the exhibition.
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For further details, follow this link:
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My special thanks to Sebastian Boyle of the Boyle Family
for introducing me to Chris Townsend.
And then there were 12...
#1335 of 1500
Two more versions of the "Tiger Mountain" prints have been
added to the collection, courtesy of Dr. Steven Lynn of California,
the world's foremost collector of "Tiger Mountain" prints.
PSW now has 12 examples of this edition of 1500 unique
prints assembled for your perusal.
www.PeterSchmidtWeb.com
Saturday, May 10, 2008
The Deck of Cards
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The intrepid Rory Walsh came across "The Deck of Cards" while enjoying the Blood on the Page exhibition and researching Peter Schmidt at the Victoria and Albert Museum. This fascinating deck was the brainchild of Alan Driscoll, who produced it in 1979. Peter's Jack of Diamonds, accompanied Tom Phillips' Six of Hearts, David Hockney's King of Hearts, and John Furnival's Nine of Hearts, among this collection of original designs by 56 of England's leading artists. The scan above was created using the deck I recently purchased though Abebooks. Peter's card acknowledges the Tarot and it's duality with the standard deck, with specific imagery and letters that spell out "Page of Pentacles". A picture of this card will eventually wend it's way into the miscellaneous section of www.PeterSchmidtWeb.com
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Sunday, May 4, 2008
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