(MILWAUKEE, WI)  The Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University will present Peter Sehringer: Contemporary German Painting September 18 through November 30, 2003.  The first American museum exhibition of Peter Sehringer opens September 18 with a gallery talk with the artist at 6pm in the museum followed by a reception at 7.  This exhibition is the latest in a series of contemporary art exhibitions at the Haggerty Museum of Art intended to bring recent developments in the arts from around the world to Milwaukee audiences.

Sehringer's recent subject matter includes decorative patterns, floral patterns and animal images from nature, as well as silhouettes of military figures. To create his large scale paintings, Sehringer projects the contours of his chosen image onto a wood panel.  He then uses a layer by layer application of paint, intentionally blurring the images to create paintings that are both representational and abstract.  Titles of his series of work include "Estates," "Hymn to the Sea," "The World Inbetween," "The Tightrope Walk," "Ornament," and "Towards Beauty".

Peter Sehringer was born in Brombach, Germany in 1958. He studied at the State Academy of the Arts in Stuttgart, 1980-1986 and won the New Darmstädter Secession Prize for Young Artists in 1985.  He has received scholarships from the Baden-Wurttemberg Art Foundation in 1988 and the Cité des Artes, Paris in 1997.  In the 1980s he began painting abstract works.  In the 1990s he began a more representational style of painting utilizing objects such as animals, people and landscapes as a focus of his work. Sehringer's work has been exhibited at the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart and in galleries throughout Germany including Darmstadt, Karlsruhe, Stuttgart and Baden-Wurttemberg.

"Sehringer is constantly experimenting with ways to test the objecthood of a painting," said Dr. Curtis L. Carter, curator of the exhibition.  "His constructions are seductively lush in their mix of vibrant color and pattern.  In these works he moves beyond the modernist tradition with its emphasis on formalism.  His silhouettes of military figures hint disconcertingly at the current social preoccupation with societal violence."

This exhibition is sponsored by the Mary Martha Doerr Endowment Fund and the Wisconsin Arts Board and is being presented in cooperation with private art consultant Roman Zenner of Stuttgart, Germany. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue with an essay by Curtis L. Carter, curator of the exhibition.
 

The Haggerty Museum of Art is located at North 13th St. and West Clybourn Avenue on the campus of Marquette University. Museum hours are Monday - Wednesday, Friday - Saturday, 10 am-4:30 p.m.; Thursday, 10 am-8 p.m.; and Sunday, noon-5 p.m.. Free parking is available in the Mary B. Finnigan Parking Lot (enter on 11th St. through Marquette Lot J). For more information on the exhibition or the Haggerty Museum, call 414/288-1669.