Peter Schmidt was a Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

-born British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 artist, painter, theoretician of color and composition, pioneering multimedia exhibitor and an influential teacher. He was part of a generation of art school teachers in the 1960s and 1970s that had great impact on some students who later went on to work in art and music. He worked with Hansjörg Mayer, Brian Eno

Brian Eno

Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...

, Mark Boyle

Mark Boyle

Mark Boyle was an artist born in Glasgow and known for his work in the cultural UK Underground of the 1950s around the Traverse Theatre, and exhibiting since 1985 with Joan Hills and their children Sebastian and Georgia as Boyle Family.The World Series pieces involve the meticulous re-creation of...

, Dieter Roth

Dieter Roth

Dieter Roth was an Icelandic artist of Swiss German origin best known for his artist's books and for his sculptures and pictures made with rotting food stuffs. He was also known as Dieter Rot and Diter Rot....

 and had associations with Russell Mills

Russell Mills

Russell Mills is a British artist who was born in Ripon, Yorkshire, UK in 1952. He paints, creates multimedia installations, designs stage sets and lighting and has produced record covers and book covers for Brian Eno, the Cocteau Twins,Michael Nyman, David Sylvian, Peter Gabriel, and Nine Inch...

, David Toop

David Toop

David Toop is an English musician and author, and as of 2001 was visiting Research Fellow in the Media School at London College of Communication. He was notably a member of The Flying Lizards. He was a prominent contributor to the British magazine The Face. He is a regular contributor to The Wire,...

 and Tom Phillips

Tom Phillips

Thomas Phillips was an English painter.Thomas Phillips or Tom Phillips may also refer to:-Culture:* Sir Thomas Phillipps , British antiquary and book collector...

.

Biography

Peter Schmidt was born 17 May 1931 in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, moved to England with his Jewish mother in 1938, and began painting in 1947. He studied at the Goldsmiths College

Goldsmiths College

Goldsmiths, University of London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom which specialises in the arts, humanities and social sciences, and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It was founded in 1891 as Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute...

 from 1951–1953, and Slade School from 1953-1957. He won the Abbey Minor Travelling Scholarship 1957-58, which was spent in Sicily. On his return to England, he painted directly from objects and people, mainly in oils. His work was exhibited at Beaux Arts, with his first one man show in 1961. He was the subject of a film called CUBISM AND BEYOND: DEPARTURES made for BBC TV in 1961. In 1963 he began a concept of painting he called PROGRAM. He produced a series of works inspired by music exhibited in a one man show at the Curwen Gallery 1966 . By this time his work had become totally abstract and he was focusing on ideas and systems. He performed an electronic music event called A PAINTERS USE OF SOUND at the ICA in 1967. Other music and performance work were at the Bristol Arts Centre, the UFO Club and, the Cochrane Theatre. He was also working with Mark Boyle

Mark Boyle

Mark Boyle was an artist born in Glasgow and known for his work in the cultural UK Underground of the 1950s around the Traverse Theatre, and exhibiting since 1985 with Joan Hills and their children Sebastian and Georgia as Boyle Family.The World Series pieces involve the meticulous re-creation of...

 at that time, performing in "Son et Lumiere" also at the Cochrane. The 1968 ICA exhibition "Cybernetic Serendipity", curated by Jasia Reichardt, had Peter Schmidt as musical director. He performed ELECTRONIC SOUP MIX in 1969 at the Curwin Gallery, and FILM SOUND MIXES at the ICA.

In 1972 he produced a series of 64 drawings based on hexagrams of the I Ching

I Ching

The I Ching or "Yì Jīng" , also known as the Classic of Changes, Book of Changes and Zhouyi, is one of the oldest of the Chinese classic texts...

. One of his last creative explorations in non figuative work was a series of abstract paintings, which were illuminated by a special shifting colour light box, the electronics of which were specially designed. At this point his work gradually started to become figurative once more. In 1975 he had an exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, shared with his students at Watford School of Art, "Painting on Clothes".

During his life Peter Schmidt explored many media and ideas, he produced a huge amount of work including books, prints, film, sound and painting. For the latter years of his life he painted in water colour, spending extended periods on the Canary Islands, the Isle of Skye off the coast of Scotland, and in Iceland painting landscapes. Although representational, Peter's approach was to use his theory of colour and composition developed previously. In other words, to create both an abstract and figurative painting in one. The last exhibition Peter Schmidt planned, he called More Than Nothing, at Paul Ide Gallery in Brussels, was of collaborative works with Brian Eno

Brian Eno

Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...

. Among the works shown was the first generative light box, a watercolour painting of Eno called "Portrait of Eno with Allusions", several Tiger Mountain prints, the French edition of the oracle card set called Oblique Strategies

Oblique Strategies

Oblique Strategies is a set of published cards created by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt first published in 1975, and is now in its fifth, open ended, edition...

, the four "Mandala Castles" and etchings created just for this exhibit.

However, he died suddenly while on holiday in the Canary Islands

Canary Islands

The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...

, on the island of La Gomera

La Gomera

La Gomera is one of Spain's Canary Islands, located in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa. In area, it is the second-smallest of the seven main islands of this group.- Political organization :...

, of a heart attack on 22 January 1980, just days before the opening.

Works

Peter Schmidt met Brian Eno

Brian Eno

Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...

 as a visiting lecturer at Ipswich art school in the late 1960s and later became a friend and collaborator. They found they had both independently arrived at a system of using little quotes and axioms to overcome artistic obstacles. They combined efforts to publish the Oblique Strategies

Oblique Strategies

Oblique Strategies is a set of published cards created by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt first published in 1975, and is now in its fifth, open ended, edition...

 cards in 1975. Brian Eno commented on Schmidt. The Oblique Strategies seem to have been an out growth of Schmidt's own "Thoughts Behind The Thoughts".

Peter Schmidt has two prints from 1971, both called "Flowing in the Right Direction" in the Tate Collection. Five of Schmidt's Monoprints from late 1968 are in the UK Government Art Collection that maintains and exhibits works in various government buildings. Several of these Monoprints can be seen in the James Bond 007 film "Her Majesty's Secret Service".

Schmidt created 1500 different silk screen portraits of Brian Eno, four of which are used on the cover of the LP Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)

Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)

Taking Tiger Mountain is the second solo album by Brian Eno. Produced by Eno, it was originally released by Island Records in November 1974 in a gatefold sleeve. Unlike his previous album Here Come the Warm Jets, Eno used a core band of five instrumentalists and used fewer guest musicians...

. The Robert Fripp

Robert Fripp

Robert Fripp is an English guitarist, composer and record producer. He was ranked 42nd on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and #47 on Gibson.com’s "Top 50 Guitarists of All Time". Among rock guitarists, Fripp is a master of crosspicking, a technique...

 and Brian Eno

Brian Eno

Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...

 LP Evening Star

Evening Star (album)

Evening Star is an album by the British ambient musicians Robert Fripp and Brian Eno. The cover is a painting by the artist Peter Schmidt....

 has on its cover a Schmidt painting.

Brian Eno included four watercolor prints of Schmidt's work with the first edition of his LP Before and after Science

Before and after Science

Before and After Science is the fifth studio album by British musician Brian Eno. Produced by Eno and Rhett Davies, it was originally released by Polydor Records in December 1977. Unlike Eno's previous albums which were written and recorded quickly, the album took over two years to complete...

 and famously wrote in its liner notes: "Apart from our collaboration on this record, Peter and I have been working together and comparing notes for some time. In 1975 we produced a boxed set of oracle cards called "Oblique Strategies

Oblique Strategies

Oblique Strategies is a set of published cards created by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt first published in 1975, and is now in its fifth, open ended, edition...

", which were used extensively in the making of this record."

Schmidt created the water color painting, "Portrait of Eno with Allusions" originally considered for the cover of the "Before and After Science" LP.

Many of his later works were abstract/realist landscapes produced and sold in Iceland. His work was collected by the actors Terence Stamp

Terence Stamp

Terence Henry Stamp is an English actor. Since starting his career in 1962 he has appeared in over 60 films. His title role as Billy Budd in his film debut earned Stamp an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor and a BAFTA nomination for Best Newcomer.His other major roles include...

 and Julie Christie

Julie Christie

Julie Frances Christie is a British actress. Born in British India to English parents, at the age of six Christie moved to England, where she attended boarding school....

.

Publications

• "futura 24 - programmed squares 11" (Broadsheet), an edition of 300. Published by Edition Hansjoerg Mayer, Stuttgart, 1968.
• "ROTAPRINTS", an edition of 16. Published by Edition Hansjoerg Mayer, Stuttgart, 1968.
• "Electrostatic Portraits", Published by Edition Hansjoerg Mayer, Stuttgart, 1968.
• "Im Kopf - In The Head - A Book of Drawings", a book of line drawings, a psycho-philosophical analysis of the human mind. The cover is embossed with one of these drawings, an edition of 250 copies. Published by Peter Schmidt, London, 1969.
• "Peter Schmidt Autobiographical Monoprints", an edition of 400. A 78-page booklet, with an analytical introduction by Jasia Reichardt, to accompany an exhibition at Lisson Gallery. These monoprints were made between July and November 1969, incorporating elements from 1947–1969, "In choosing the material to work with I tried to revisit and own up to every aspect of my life. I found that the things that were most painful to use were the best to use." Published by Lisson Gallery, London, 1970
• "The Thoughts Behind the Thoughts", an edition of 100. A wooden box containing 55 original cards, letter press on old prints with a perspex lid. Published by Peter Schmidt, London, 1970.
• "Everyday Third Eye Vision" (Broadsheet) Published by Peter Schmidt, London, 1972.
• "Flikker Book 7", Published by Editions Alecto, 1972.
• "Printed in Watford", an edition of 1000. Published by Watford School of Art, 1974.
• "The Lord's Prayer Hung on the Tree of Life" (Broadsheet) Published by Peter Schmidt, London, 1974.
• "Sketchmaps", an edition of 100. Published by Peter Schmidt, London, 1974.
• "Mother and Daughter", Published by Peter Schmidt, London, 1974.
• "A Meeting with Kali", Published by Peter Schmidt, London, 1975.
• "Oblique Strategies
  Oblique Strategies
  Oblique Strategies is a set of published cards created by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt first published in 1975, and is now in its fifth, open ended, edition...
  
  ", with Brian Eno, an edition of 500 copies. "Over one hundred worthwhile dilemmas by BRIAN ENO and PETER SCHMIDT" (actually 113 worthwhile dilemmas and four or five blank cards). Published by EG Management, 1975.
• "a secret in stone", a book of Schmidt's poetry, with drawings by Patrick Hourihan, an edition of 500 copies. Published by Watford School of Art, 1979.

Exhibitions

Peter Schmidt had exhibitions at:

• Beaux Arts Gallery, London - 1961
• Curwen Gallery, London - 1966
• Gallerie Hansjorg Mayer, Stuttgart - 1967
• Lisson Gallery, London; Editions Alecto Gallery, London - 1968
• Bear Lane Gallery, London; Curwen Gallery, London - 1969
• Lisson Gallery, London - 1970
• White Chapel Gallery, London - 1975
• JPL Fine Arts, "Watercolours", London - 1977
• Galerie Shandar, Paris; Galleri Sudurgata 7, Reykjavik; Sundholl Gallery, Isafordor; Caius College Gallery, Cambridge - 1978
• Paul Ide Gallery, Brussels; Galleri Sudurgata 7, Reykjavik; Vertshuis Gallery, Flatey - 1979
• Paul Ide Gallery(with Brian Eno) "More Than Nothing", Brussels - 1980
• Watford Museum, "Remembered Images", Watford - 1987
• The Living Art Museum, "Icelandic Landscapes", Reykjavik - 1995
• Mummery & Schnelle, "To Become Like Music", London - 2008

Quotes

• "One of the functions of art is to offer a more desirable reality; a model as it were, of another style of existence with its own pace and its own cultural reference." Peter Schmidt

• "In a roomful of shouting people, the one who whispers becomes interesting." Peter Schmidt

• "He was enigmatic and tried to get us to approach things from different angles. Not however, in an analytical way though he could be very analytical, it was more to do with looking for the mysterious invisible centre of experience." Linda Landers, student

• "These cards evolved from our separate observations on the principles underlying what we were doing. Sometimes they were recognized in retrospect (intellect catching up with intuition), sometimes they were identified as they were happening, sometimes they were formulated. They can be used as a pack (a set of possibilities being continuously reviewed in the mind) or by drawing a single card from the shuffled pack when a dilemma occurs in a working situation. In this case,the card is trusted even if its appropriateness is quite unclear. They are not final, as new ideas will present themselves, and others will become self-evident." Brian Eno/Peter Schmidt - Card #2 from Oblique Strategies
  Oblique Strategies
  Oblique Strategies is a set of published cards created by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt first published in 1975, and is now in its fifth, open ended, edition...
  
  , 1975

• "...During the past two years, Peter Schmidt has restricted his work almost exclusively to water colours, that curious medium which seems to stand on the borderline between 'Sunday painting' and 'serious painting'. I believe that this ambiguity itself has been a major reason for his continued use of the medium, for it allows pictorial events which can be light-hearted and ephemeral, and at the same time brooding and mysterious. The medium does not stipulate a particular emotional range, and presents itself to a perceiver in a kind of innocent and understated way - as if with a lowered voice. It seems that at a time when the currency of the day is to engage in productions that are in some way epic - be it in terms of scale, loudness or detail - that which is simple and quiet suddenly becomes relevant. It is talking in a new way..." Brian Eno, 1978

• "Travel was necessary to enable Peter to paint. He longed for solitude and sought to investigate the influence solitude had on his perception of the world about him. Painting itself was for him just a part of the creative process. He went for walks, submitting himself to the influence of whatever met his eye. He did not take with him a sketchbook or any paint-tools, but when he had finished his walk he emptied his mind of all superfluities and painted from memory what remained there." Eggert Pétursson, from the "Icelandic Landscapes" exhibition catalogue, 1995

• "Each year the students would create a book that was printed and bound in the college. Eduardo Paolozzi
  Eduardo Paolozzi
  Sir Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi, KBE, RA , was a Scottish sculptor and artist. He was a major figure in the international art sphere, while, working on his own interpretation and vision of the world. Paolozzi investigated how we can fit into the modern world to resemble our fragmented civilization...
  
  did his Abba Zabba there one year. ‘Printed In Watford’ was done by the year above me, our year was ‘Constructive Anachronisms For Supportive Analysis’(a book about Shelf Brackets)with Hansjorg Meyer. The following year, however I did a magazine with Peter Schmidt, The Foundation Course and Brian Eno called 'The Humble Meek'. It was like an up-market religious pamphlet spoofing an entire religion foisted onto the banal wise-words of a made-up Watford Housewife. There was a twist to it all as well. I have a pile of these still, I sold them in Record Shops and the right kind of bookshop, and we got rid of hundreds of the buggers. ‘Irene Williams’ she was called and we had just the one photo of her, rescued from a photo booth in London. The point of this is to show that Peter was amazingly playful and had a tremendous sense of humour, often quite wicked." Cally, a student, taken from a private correspondence, 2007

External links

• PeterSchmidtWeb, an internet raisonne catalogue, dedicated to preserving the memory of Peter Schmidt's life and work.