N° 197, hiver 2004-2005

ENGLISH REPORT

PETER KRAUSZ
LE CHANT DE LA TERRE
John K. Grande

Nov, 6 - 20, 2004
Mira Godard
22 Hazelton Ave.
Tel.: 416-964-8197
www.godardgallery.com

LOS ANGELES
HELEN’S EXILE
April 15 - May 28, 2005
Forum Gallery
8069 Beverly Blvd.
Tel.: 323-655-1550 / Fax: 323-655-1565

Peter Krausz’s sun drenched Mediterranean landscapes construct inviting scenarios. Though there are no people in these idyllic paintings, they represent places that have been civilized and cultivated for a very long time. The atmosphere of these places, and of a landscape topography becomes a metaphor for a civilization’s heritage, it’s agrarian legacy of living in harmony with the land.

The land in these paintings is meandering, and undulating, and carries a narrative within its own form. Ever so faintly conceptual, the landscapes that Krausz has brought into being with great painterly capacity are like living bodies, a macrocosmic world. It is no surprise then to find out that Peter Krausz’s favourite painters from the past include Velasquez and Anselm Kiefer....Using pure powder pigment and egg emulsion, to then paint on a surface of polished plaster (secco) these tempera on panel paintings are built layer by layer. The formats vary from vertical to horizontal, narrow and broad. A series of smaller sepia on paper sketches are also being exhibited alongside the major new works.

As landscapes, the Chant de la Terre series achieve a light and colour resonance that carries an echo like musical compositions can do in our memory. These intuitive landscapes are as much about the way nature can work on our memory, and carry cadences of personal experience, from childhood or any other time in our lives. As such, the landscape becomes a universal metaphor for human experience. Like Paolo Ucello, Krausz builds a world using perspective, colour and design with great care. While observation and original sketch material undoubtedly plays a role in these paintings, they look natural but are actually constructions. The tension Krausz achieves includes some immeasurable quality of sublimity as an ingredient in the mix, something that makes these works popular among private collectors. Krausz has been painting landscapes for some 12 years now. These paintings are places of refuge, of contemplation, even windows of hope, in a world where landscape are being devastated by development and pollution. As paintings they succeed particularly because Krausz loves the process of painting. These paintings work as landscapes because they are so subtly modeled with light and layers of colour. Almost like an architecture of nature and astoundingly simple, these compositions involve basic principles of design. We welcome them. They truly are the visual equivalent of songs for and of the earth!

N° 197, hiver 2004-2005