Artist Spotlight I Peter Frie
“Peter’s landscapes draw the viewer in… they belong to anyone and can be anywhere. There are no people, no buildings, no signs of human habitation. So the landscape really is the focus.”
-Soo Hitchen, 2023
Peter Frie
Landscape 1, 2023
Oil on canvas
180 x 120 cm
71 x 47 ¼ in.
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Dominated by expanses of sky and colour, Peter Frie’s recent paintings, shown here in our Design House at Roche Court, are inspired by Salisbury Plain. At the forefront of his vision is landscape and a love of nature, as he illustrates spaces in twilight, a transient moment that signifies the passing of time. White fields in his composition, a technique that he has been utilising since the early 90s, distort the view and underline the ambiguity of memory, allowing these views to become a personal experience for each viewer.
Pictured left:
Peter Frie
Landscape 3, 2023
Oil on canvas
120 x 90 cm
47 ¼ x 35 ½ in.
Peter Frie does not make any preliminary sketches on site, but instead paints from memory from his studio in Båstad. His landscape paintings prompt viewers to revisit their own memories and experiences of a landscape, through atmosphere, feeling and the unreliability of recall. As Jeremy Lewison writes in Peter Frie: The View Belongs to Everyone, "standing in front of his work encourages the viewer to engage with their own memories, not of the landscape depicted but experiences had in similar situations".
Pictured left:
Peter Frie
Landscape 4, 2023
Oil on canvas
190 x 150 cm
74 ¾ x 59 in.
Using broad brushstrokes and a palette knife, Frie brings to life an illusion of volume. Details of terrain and human interference lose their significance, and the emphasis shifts towards space and light.
Peter Frie
Landscape 8, 2023
Oil on canvas
180 x 120 cm
71 x 47 ¼ in.
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Peter Frie
Landscape 2, 2023
Oil on canvas
180 x 120 cm
71 x 47 ¼ in.
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Peter Frie
Tree 3, 2023
Bronze
25 x 25 x 20 cm
10 x 10 x 8 in.
Edition 1 of 4
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Peter Frie’s sculpture, also shown at Roche Court, have a dark patina that gives the impression of silhouetted trees on an evening landscape. An aspect of his practice which he began in 2009, his bronze trees are characterised by painterly surfaces and perfectly balanced branches. As Timo Valjakka remarked in Peter’s book, Under the Red Sky (2019), these works are "recognisably a painter’s sculptures, given they are shaped as much by light and shade as by the hand… they create their own surrounding world and scale. When we look at them, we can see the air vibrating around them".
Pictured left:
Peter Frie
Tree 5, 2023
Bronze
24 x 25 x 17 cm
9 ½ x 9 ¾ x 6 ¾ in.
Edition 1 of 4
Pictured right:
Peter Frie
Tree 4, 2023
Bronze
24 x 26 x 22 cm
9 ½ x 10 ¼ x 8 ½ in.
Edition 1 of 4
Peter Frie
Big Yamutree, 2016
Bronze and stainless steel
340 x 245 x 152cm
11ft 2 x 8ft x 4ft 12 in.
Unique
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Swedish sculptor and painter, Peter Frie, was born in Lysekil in 1947. Having started painting from a very early age, Frie’s work references influences from landscape painters such as Turner, Constable and Cezanne. In 1998, he was awarded the Ars Fennica, the prestigious prize bestowed by the Henne and Pertti Niemistö Art Foundation.
Frie’s sculptures and paintings have been shown in many solo and group exhibitions across the UK, Europe and North America. Notable solo shows include at Galleri Lars Bonham, Stockholm, Sweden (1990); Galleri Atle Gerhardsen, Oslo, Norway (1997); Roman Zenner Gallery, Stuttgart, Germany (2001); Ikon Gallery, Birmingham (2001); Thielska Galleriet, Stockholm, Sweden (2012); Galleri Forsblom, Helsinki, Finland (2013); Serlachius Museum, Mantra, Finland (2017); Galleri Arnstedt (2022) and most recently, Peter Frie: The View Belongs to Everyone at Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki, Finland in 2024.
Peter Frie
Path No. 3, 2016
Oil on canvas
180 x 90 cm
5ft 10 ⅞ x 2ft 11 ½ in.
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The New Art Centre has worked with Frie for over 40 years, having first met in Basel in June 1983. His paintings and sculpture are currently on display in our Design House. Peter Frie lives and works in Båstad, Sweden and Phuket, Thailand.
Peter Frie’s work is held in numerous major public collections throughout Europe and the world, including at the Haggerty Museum of Art, Milwaukee, USA; the National Public Art Council, Sweden; Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden; Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland; The Malmö Art Museum, Malmö, Sweden and the Saltarvet Collection in Fiskebäckskil, Sweden.
Further Reading
2023
Hardback
336 pages
Texts by Jeremy Lewison and Timo Valjakka
This fully illustrated retrospective reflects Peter Frie’s extensive exploration of the landscape.
It later inspired an exhibition entitled ’Within the Landscape’ installed in the gallery at Roche Court Sculpture Park (2023), a collection of 11 paintings and 6 bronze sculptures inspired by Salisbury Plain and the Wiltshire countryside. Landscape and a love of nature has always been at the forefront of Frie’s vision.