Peter Dreher
Encyclopedia
Peter Dreher is a well-established German artist from the heart of the Black Forest
region in southwestern Germany. As professor emeritus of painting, he has influenced a generation of internationally acclaimed artists, including Anselm Kiefer
. Dreher has created a lot of important works, but his magnum opus is Tag um Tag guter Tag, (Day by Day is a Good Day), a series he started working on in 1974. This work received worldwide recognition and praise, even to this day. What makes Dreher’s works unique is the way he paints realistic objects with a twist of abstraction. His works of art successfully incorporate deconstructive elements of an object without losing its naturalistic beauty.
, near the Black Forest
region in southwest Germany. When he was 7 years old, he began to draw with determination of becoming an artist. His childhood was deeply affected under the Nazi Regime. When Dreher was 12 years old, his father, a German officer, was killed while fighting in Russia and his house was subsequently destroyed. These traumatic events left Dreher feeling uprooted and painting became a refugee for him, as it allowed him to be disconnected from the outside world. While he was drawing or painting, he was able to be in his own thoughts without interruption.
Dreher felt as if he was living without a home and when he was 29 years old, he decided to build his own house in hope that it would remedy his state of homelessness. Dreher realized that a “home” was not connected to a physical place. Instead, a home is a creation you make through painting, thinking or other actions. He found his home in his magnum opus, the series Day by Day is Good Day, which he started in 1974 and continues to this day.
and Wilhelm Schnarrenberger, who were part of the Neues Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity
) movement, as well as under Erich Heckel
, one of the founders of Die Brücke
movement. As a student, Dreher also received classical training, where he learned to paint still lifes.
Dreher originally painted still lifes with restrained objectivity but he gradually perceived the objects as paintings instead of objects, which meant he painted for the sake of painting. This approach led him to do different experiments, which would later make him a distinguished artist. He often painted everyday objects, including a nail, scissors, a clock, and landscapes, but it is not merely about reproduction. Rather, he challenges the viewers to see the differences within the familiarity. Dreher explains his approach by citing Japanese artist Hiroshige
’s statement that “a beautiful landscape bores him while mediocre and familiar things have the implicit capacity to appear new again and again.”
Dreher is mostly famous for his glass series, Day by Day good Day, but he has also created series using landscapes and interiors, flower pieces and skulls. Kaspar König comments that Dreher applies his principle of exploring painting in an objective way. Dreher mentions that he “would like to be a machine,” quoting Andy Warhol
, so that he can paint objectively, which he feels is necessary for him to accomplish spiritual meditation and reflection when painting.
While Dreher admired and understood Andy Warhol
’s and other artists, like Jasper Johns
, Robert Rauschenberg
, and Claes Oldenburg
’s ideas, he went against the artistic trend of the 1950s and 1960s. Abstract Expressionism
, Minimalism
, Postminimalism
, Pop Art
, and Action Painting
were among the popular artistic movements, but Dreher remained a realistic and figurative painter. Dreher states, regarding his experience as an artist during that time, “Abstract Expressionists, Jackson Pollock
, reigned over the whole art world. You were asked, ‘What do you paint?’ If you said, ‘I am a realistic painter,’ they went away.” Throughout the 1970s and the 1980s, artistic trends continued to change at remarkable speed, however Dreher remained true to his realistic style.
Dreher is often compared to On Kawara
or Roman Opalka
, artists who work with millions of numbers and signs, respectively. Their works deal with the idea of time and try to capture the transcience of life work, but they were not created as part of a series, like Dreher’s. For Dreher, what interested him was the idea of painting for the sake of painting, which is contrary to the constant innovation and progress that are characteristics of contemporary artists. This approach reconstructs the initial harmony of painting and this is what defines a painter as a painter.
.
’s philosophy on a special form of knowledge. He believes that our perception of the world is pre-structured with knowledge that we already have. Therefore we do not necessarily see objectively. Instead what we see is embedded with our own experiences, interests, expectations, and values.
The glass is always in the same place in his studio and it is always painted life-sized and when viewers look at the series, their initial response is likely to be that they are all the same. While they may be correct that the paintings are of the same subject, each painting reveals something different about the glass. Some glasses are light and clear and some are dark and heavy. Some of the glasses show clear reflections of windows or other things and some reflections are blurry. Dreher forces us to look at the work as objectively as possible and allow ourselves to process each painting as if it were a totally new visual experience. The paintings are realistic in style but by putting them together into a series, the work becomes abstract and conceptual.
This conceptual approach to the glass series has influences from Chinese Chan (Zen) Buddhism, which emphasizes on being alert in the here as one experiences the present. The title of this magnum opus, Day by Day is Good Day, is part of a quote shared by the influential ninth century Chinese Zen master, Yunmen Wenyan
. The quote can be found in the 6th Edition of the book, Bi-Yän-Lu (Blue Cliff Record
), which is a collection of one hundred aphorisms that help people move towards a mystical experience of unity and “awakening” in life. The Zen Buddhists believe that every single piece and object of the world are of the same values and that we should be mindful of our surroundings and observe them without judgment and allow ourselves to perceive the world objectively.
The Pali canon
states how Zen Buddhist monks should be mindful: "He watches untiringly with a clear mind, insightfully grounded in his body watching over the body, with his emotions watching over the emotions, with his awareness over his consciousness and with his mind over his mind. One could all this an all-encompassing and undivided attention for what is experienced in the moment, and an elaborate practice of self-reflection—an extraordinarily modern claim and approach which is taken up by present-day psychotherapy and then adapted to one’s own purposes."
Peter Dreher embraces this philosophy and integrates it with Husserl’s philosophy to create this masterpiece. In this way, Dreher is often compared to the famous still life reduction artist, Giorgio Morandi
, for they both have similar approaches to painting the same everyday objects by capturing the present moment of seeing the object. Every single time Dreher paints the glass, he tries to perceive it without any preconception and paint what he sees objectively at that moment. Dreher states that painting the glass “is the only place and the only hours in my life when I really feel quiet. Maybe I don’t make the impression of being unquiet, but I am.”
Tag um Tag guter Tag, Kunsthalle Erfurt, Germany.
Peter Dreher, The Approach, London, Great Britain.
Realismus—Das Abenteuer der Wirklichkeit, Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Munich, Germany.
Der innere Blick—Das Interieur in der yeitgenössischen Kunst, Kunsthalle, Tübingen, Germany.
I Just Wanted You to Love Me, Peter Dreher, Natascha Stellmach & SPAM, Galerie WAGNER + PARTNER, Berlin, Germany.
(Federal Cross of Merit), Germany.
1995 Erich-Heckel-Preis, Künstlerbund Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
1979 Hans-Thoma-Staatspreis, Germany.
1976 Reinhold-Schneider-Kulturpreis, Freiburg, Germany.
1965 Villa Massimo Preis, Rome, Italy.
1958 Kunstpreis der Jugend, Germany.
Baumgärtel, Bettina, and Barbara Til. Zerbrechliche Schönheit. Museum Kunst-Palast, Düsseldorf. Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, 2008.
Dreher, Peter, Monika Machnicki et al.,. Peter Dreher: Tag um Tag guter Tag. Freiburg im Breisgau: Modo, 2008.
Lange, Christiane, and Nils Ohlsen. Realismus: das Abenteuer der Wirklichkeit. München: Hirmer, 2010.
Plotzek, Joachim M. and Michael Dodt. Auswahl eins. Köln: Kolumba, 2007.
Tillman, Lynn. 'Peter Dreher,' in BOMB. No. 57, Iss. Fall, 1996.
Black Forest
The Black Forest is a wooded mountain range in Baden-Württemberg, southwestern Germany. It is bordered by the Rhine valley to the west and south. The highest peak is the Feldberg with an elevation of 1,493 metres ....
region in southwestern Germany. As professor emeritus of painting, he has influenced a generation of internationally acclaimed artists, including Anselm Kiefer
Anselm Kiefer
Anselm Kiefer is a German painter and sculptor. He studied with Joseph Beuys and Peter Dreher during the 1970s. His works incorporate materials such as straw, ash, clay, lead, and shellac...
. Dreher has created a lot of important works, but his magnum opus is Tag um Tag guter Tag, (Day by Day is a Good Day), a series he started working on in 1974. This work received worldwide recognition and praise, even to this day. What makes Dreher’s works unique is the way he paints realistic objects with a twist of abstraction. His works of art successfully incorporate deconstructive elements of an object without losing its naturalistic beauty.
Childhood and Artistic Background
Peter Dreher was born in 1932 in MannheimMannheim
Mannheim is a city in southwestern Germany. With about 315,000 inhabitants, Mannheim is the second-largest city in the Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg, following the capital city of Stuttgart....
, near the Black Forest
Black Forest
The Black Forest is a wooded mountain range in Baden-Württemberg, southwestern Germany. It is bordered by the Rhine valley to the west and south. The highest peak is the Feldberg with an elevation of 1,493 metres ....
region in southwest Germany. When he was 7 years old, he began to draw with determination of becoming an artist. His childhood was deeply affected under the Nazi Regime. When Dreher was 12 years old, his father, a German officer, was killed while fighting in Russia and his house was subsequently destroyed. These traumatic events left Dreher feeling uprooted and painting became a refugee for him, as it allowed him to be disconnected from the outside world. While he was drawing or painting, he was able to be in his own thoughts without interruption.
Dreher felt as if he was living without a home and when he was 29 years old, he decided to build his own house in hope that it would remedy his state of homelessness. Dreher realized that a “home” was not connected to a physical place. Instead, a home is a creation you make through painting, thinking or other actions. He found his home in his magnum opus, the series Day by Day is Good Day, which he started in 1974 and continues to this day.
Artistic Style
In the 1950s, Dreher went to the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Karlsruhe, when the artistic trend was leaning towards figurative. His trainings were under a number of prominent professors, including Karl HubbuchKarl Hubbuch
Karl Hubbuch was a German painter, printmaker, and draftsman associated with the New Objectivity.Hubbuch was born in Karlsruhe. From 1908 to 1912, he studied art at the Karlsruhe Academy, where he formed friendships with fellow students Georg Scholz and Rudolf Schlichter...
and Wilhelm Schnarrenberger, who were part of the Neues Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity
New Objectivity
The New Objectivity is a term used to characterize the attitude of public life in Weimar Germany as well as the art, literature, music, and architecture created to adapt to it...
) movement, as well as under Erich Heckel
Erich Heckel
Erich Heckel was a German painter and printmaker, and a founding member of the Die Brücke group which existed 1905-1913.-Biography:Heckel was born in Döbeln . His parents were born in Saxony...
, one of the founders of Die Brücke
Die Brücke
Die Brücke was a group of German expressionist artists formed in Dresden in 1905, after which the Brücke Museum in Berlin was named. Founding members were Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. Later members were Emil Nolde, Max Pechstein and Otto Mueller...
movement. As a student, Dreher also received classical training, where he learned to paint still lifes.
Dreher originally painted still lifes with restrained objectivity but he gradually perceived the objects as paintings instead of objects, which meant he painted for the sake of painting. This approach led him to do different experiments, which would later make him a distinguished artist. He often painted everyday objects, including a nail, scissors, a clock, and landscapes, but it is not merely about reproduction. Rather, he challenges the viewers to see the differences within the familiarity. Dreher explains his approach by citing Japanese artist Hiroshige
Hiroshige
was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist, and one of the last great artists in that tradition. He was also referred to as Andō Hiroshige and by the art name of Ichiyūsai Hiroshige ....
’s statement that “a beautiful landscape bores him while mediocre and familiar things have the implicit capacity to appear new again and again.”
Dreher is mostly famous for his glass series, Day by Day good Day, but he has also created series using landscapes and interiors, flower pieces and skulls. Kaspar König comments that Dreher applies his principle of exploring painting in an objective way. Dreher mentions that he “would like to be a machine,” quoting Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
, so that he can paint objectively, which he feels is necessary for him to accomplish spiritual meditation and reflection when painting.
While Dreher admired and understood Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
’s and other artists, like Jasper Johns
Jasper Johns
Jasper Johns, Jr. is an American contemporary artist who works primarily in painting and printmaking.-Life:Born in Augusta, Georgia, Jasper Johns spent his early life in Allendale, South Carolina with his paternal grandparents after his parents' marriage failed...
, Robert Rauschenberg
Robert Rauschenberg
Robert Rauschenberg was an American artist who came to prominence in the 1950s transition from Abstract Expressionism to Pop Art. Rauschenberg is well-known for his "Combines" of the 1950s, in which non-traditional materials and objects were employed in innovative combinations...
, and Claes Oldenburg
Claes Oldenburg
Claes Oldenburg is a Swedish sculptor, best known for his public art installations typically featuring very large replicas of everyday objects...
’s ideas, he went against the artistic trend of the 1950s and 1960s. Abstract Expressionism
Abstract expressionism
Abstract expressionism was an American post–World War II art movement. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve worldwide influence and put New York City at the center of the western art world, a role formerly filled by Paris...
, Minimalism
Minimalism
Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is set out to expose the essence, essentials or identity of a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or concepts...
, Postminimalism
Postminimalism
Postminimalism is an art term coined by Robert Pincus-Witten in 1971 used in various artistic fields for work which is influenced by, or attempts to develop and go beyond, the aesthetic of minimalism...
, Pop Art
Pop art
Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art...
, and Action Painting
Action painting
Action painting sometimes called "gestural abstraction", is a style of painting in which paint is spontaneously dribbled, splashed or smeared onto the canvas, rather than being carefully applied...
were among the popular artistic movements, but Dreher remained a realistic and figurative painter. Dreher states, regarding his experience as an artist during that time, “Abstract Expressionists, Jackson Pollock
Jackson Pollock
Paul Jackson Pollock , known as Jackson Pollock, was an influential American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. During his lifetime, Pollock enjoyed considerable fame and notoriety. He was regarded as a mostly reclusive artist. He had a volatile personality, and...
, reigned over the whole art world. You were asked, ‘What do you paint?’ If you said, ‘I am a realistic painter,’ they went away.” Throughout the 1970s and the 1980s, artistic trends continued to change at remarkable speed, however Dreher remained true to his realistic style.
Dreher is often compared to On Kawara
On Kawara
is a Japanese conceptual artist living in New York City since 1965. He has shown in many solo and group exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale in 1976.-Early life:After graduating from Kariya High School in 1951, Kawara moved to Tokyo...
or Roman Opalka
Roman Opalka
Roman Opałka was a French-born Polish painter.Opałka was born on August 27, 1931, in Abbeville-Saint-Lucien, France, to Polish parents. The family returned to Poland in 1946 and Opałka studied lithography at a graphics school before enrolling in the School of Art and Design in Lodz. He later...
, artists who work with millions of numbers and signs, respectively. Their works deal with the idea of time and try to capture the transcience of life work, but they were not created as part of a series, like Dreher’s. For Dreher, what interested him was the idea of painting for the sake of painting, which is contrary to the constant innovation and progress that are characteristics of contemporary artists. This approach reconstructs the initial harmony of painting and this is what defines a painter as a painter.
Job as Professor and Influence on other Artists
In the 1960s, Dreher was hired to be a Professor of Painting at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Karlsruhe. During his professorship, he has taught and influenced many internationally acclaimed artists, including Ralph Fleck, Friedemann Hahn, and Anselm KieferAnselm Kiefer
Anselm Kiefer is a German painter and sculptor. He studied with Joseph Beuys and Peter Dreher during the 1970s. His works incorporate materials such as straw, ash, clay, lead, and shellac...
.
Tag um Tag guter Tag
Peter Dreher paints the same empty glass in a series that he started in 1974 and after more than 30 years, he is still working on it. He had painted the same glass more than 2,300 times at night and more than 2,100 times during the daytime. Why would an artist paint the same object for more than 30 years? His series challenges us to think about the differences between receptive and productive processing in how we perceive the world around us. To explain his work, Dreher adopted the term, “phenomenological reduction” from Edmund HusserlEdmund Husserl
Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl was a philosopher and mathematician and the founder of the 20th century philosophical school of phenomenology. He broke with the positivist orientation of the science and philosophy of his day, yet he elaborated critiques of historicism and of psychologism in logic...
’s philosophy on a special form of knowledge. He believes that our perception of the world is pre-structured with knowledge that we already have. Therefore we do not necessarily see objectively. Instead what we see is embedded with our own experiences, interests, expectations, and values.
The glass is always in the same place in his studio and it is always painted life-sized and when viewers look at the series, their initial response is likely to be that they are all the same. While they may be correct that the paintings are of the same subject, each painting reveals something different about the glass. Some glasses are light and clear and some are dark and heavy. Some of the glasses show clear reflections of windows or other things and some reflections are blurry. Dreher forces us to look at the work as objectively as possible and allow ourselves to process each painting as if it were a totally new visual experience. The paintings are realistic in style but by putting them together into a series, the work becomes abstract and conceptual.
This conceptual approach to the glass series has influences from Chinese Chan (Zen) Buddhism, which emphasizes on being alert in the here as one experiences the present. The title of this magnum opus, Day by Day is Good Day, is part of a quote shared by the influential ninth century Chinese Zen master, Yunmen Wenyan
Yunmen Wenyan
Yúnmén Wényǎn , , was a major Chinese Zen master in Tang-era China...
. The quote can be found in the 6th Edition of the book, Bi-Yän-Lu (Blue Cliff Record
Blue Cliff Record
The Blue Cliff Record ; Vietnamese: Bích nham lục ) is a collection of Chán Buddhist koans originally compiled in China during the Song dynasty in 1125 and then expanded into its present form by the Chán master Yuanwu Keqin .The book includes Yuanwu's annotations and commentary on Xuedou...
), which is a collection of one hundred aphorisms that help people move towards a mystical experience of unity and “awakening” in life. The Zen Buddhists believe that every single piece and object of the world are of the same values and that we should be mindful of our surroundings and observe them without judgment and allow ourselves to perceive the world objectively.
The Pali canon
Pāli Canon
The Pāli Canon is the standard collection of scriptures in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, as preserved in the Pāli language. It is the only completely surviving early Buddhist canon, and one of the first to be written down...
states how Zen Buddhist monks should be mindful: "He watches untiringly with a clear mind, insightfully grounded in his body watching over the body, with his emotions watching over the emotions, with his awareness over his consciousness and with his mind over his mind. One could all this an all-encompassing and undivided attention for what is experienced in the moment, and an elaborate practice of self-reflection—an extraordinarily modern claim and approach which is taken up by present-day psychotherapy and then adapted to one’s own purposes."
Peter Dreher embraces this philosophy and integrates it with Husserl’s philosophy to create this masterpiece. In this way, Dreher is often compared to the famous still life reduction artist, Giorgio Morandi
Giorgio Morandi
Giorgio Morandi was an Italian painter and printmaker who specialized in still life. His paintings are noted for their tonal subtlety in depicting apparently simple subjects, which were limited mainly to vases, bottles, bowls, flowers, and landscapes.-Biography:Giorgio Morandi was born in Bologna...
, for they both have similar approaches to painting the same everyday objects by capturing the present moment of seeing the object. Every single time Dreher paints the glass, he tries to perceive it without any preconception and paint what he sees objectively at that moment. Dreher states that painting the glass “is the only place and the only hours in my life when I really feel quiet. Maybe I don’t make the impression of being unquiet, but I am.”
2008
Tag um Tag guter Tag, Kunstverein, Ulm, Germany.Tag um Tag guter Tag, Kunsthalle Erfurt, Germany.
2007
Beachcomber Shores, Galerie WAGNER + PARTNER, Berlin, Germany.Peter Dreher, The Approach, London, Great Britain.
2010
25 + 25 - 25 Künstler aus 25 Jahren, Kunstverein, Ettlingen, Germany.Realismus—Das Abenteuer der Wirklichkeit, Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Munich, Germany.
Der innere Blick—Das Interieur in der yeitgenössischen Kunst, Kunsthalle, Tübingen, Germany.
2008
Zerbrechliche Schönheit, Glas im Blick der Kunst, Stiftung Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf, Germany.I Just Wanted You to Love Me, Peter Dreher, Natascha Stellmach & SPAM, Galerie WAGNER + PARTNER, Berlin, Germany.
Honors and Awards
2000 BundesverdienstkreuzBundesverdienstkreuz
The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany is the only general state decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has existed since 7 September 1951, and between 3,000 and 5,200 awards are given every year across all classes...
(Federal Cross of Merit), Germany.
1995 Erich-Heckel-Preis, Künstlerbund Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
1979 Hans-Thoma-Staatspreis, Germany.
1976 Reinhold-Schneider-Kulturpreis, Freiburg, Germany.
1965 Villa Massimo Preis, Rome, Italy.
1958 Kunstpreis der Jugend, Germany.
Sources and Further Reading
The information in this article come from the following sources:Baumgärtel, Bettina, and Barbara Til. Zerbrechliche Schönheit. Museum Kunst-Palast, Düsseldorf. Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, 2008.
Dreher, Peter, Monika Machnicki et al.,. Peter Dreher: Tag um Tag guter Tag. Freiburg im Breisgau: Modo, 2008.
Lange, Christiane, and Nils Ohlsen. Realismus: das Abenteuer der Wirklichkeit. München: Hirmer, 2010.
Plotzek, Joachim M. and Michael Dodt. Auswahl eins. Köln: Kolumba, 2007.
Tillman, Lynn. 'Peter Dreher,' in BOMB. No. 57, Iss. Fall, 1996.