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PETER WICHMAN

Nostalgia

8 May - 1 June 2007

Peter Wichman is a literary historian as well as painter with an M.A.Hons from Victoria University, Wellington and a M.Litt from Magdalen College, Oxford. He brings his interest in literature and art history to bear on his paintings which generally deal with psychological and moral questions. Human passion and social responsibility, human passion and the intellect are themes which span his career. His pictures are highly narrative and often use references or symbols that suggest the recurring nature of human experience. He attempts to portray the human predicament as something both eternal and immediate.

Wichman came to New Zealand from Europe when he was fourteen. He began painting in 1984, when he concluded his career as a full time lecturer at Waikato University. He has exhibited his work regularly in Auckland and Wellington and has been a finalist in a number of National Art Awards. His work is represented in private collections throughout New Zealand, and in Australia, the United States and Europe.

To read a review of this exhibition by The NZ Herald visit: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/story.cfm?c_id=355&objectid=10439850


Recital
oil on canvas 83 x 123 cm

Artist statement

Nostalgia is a siren companion: it draws you back to the comfort and saftey of the past only to reveal how little you can actually escape the present. You try to go home but discover that home is what you have now, for better or worse. And submit to it you must.

The exhibition contains scenes of this displacement.

Artists
oil on canvas 90 x 90 cm

Pyramid II
oil on canvas 92 x 101 cm

Contracts
oil on canvas 71 x 101 cm

Dance I
oil on canvas 76 x 91 cm

Boys
oil on linen 61 x 71 cm

Walking
oil on canvas 83 x 106 cm

The above works are only a selection of those exhibited

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