Peter Weiss

3 September 2016 - 8 January 2017

Peter Weiss was born in Berlin in 1916 and died in Stockholm in 1982. He grew up in Germany, England and Czechoslovakia. Between 1938 and 1939 the family moved to Sweden, where Peter Weiss came to live and work for 43 years.

With a precocious versatility wandered Peter Weiss freely between disciplines in a wide field of activity both as an artist, filmmaker, playwright and novelist.

I His early paintings are influences from the old renaissance masters such as Bosch, Brueghel and Grünewald. But the subjects were contemporary and personal, and describes in a way moods and emotions in a tried Europe. A recurring theme in the paintings from the 1930s and 1940s is man in intricate urban environments, metaphors for vulnerability and existential anxiety.

Later occurs a transition to surrealism and he drew inspiration especially from Max Ernst and Man Ray. Weiss also came to work with the moving image. With Impressions from Bunuel and Dalí, he created Gesamtkunstwerk with all the elements that he has worked with: picture, words, music, lights and motion.

After 1960, Peter Weiss production more and more focused on writing. His plays and novels became internationally acclaimed and in Germany Peter Weiss is regarded as one of their classics.

In spring 2008, several hundred works of Peter Weiss picture artistic estate was stolen and has not yet been found.