The Life and Artistic Practice of Peter Dreher
Born in Mannheim, Germany, Peter Dreher was a painter, graphic designer, university teacher, graphic artist, etcher, and draftsperson. His early life was marked by the loss of his father, who was killed fighting in Russia during World War II. Dreher began drawing at the age of seven with a determination to become an artist. He pursued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, Karlsruhe, during the 1950s, studying under Karl Hubbuch, Wilhelm Schnarrenberger, and Erich Heckel. His first solo exhibition took place in 1954 at the Städtische Kunsthalle Mannheim.
As a professor of painting, Dreher taught at the Academy of Fine Arts, Karlsruhe, serving as a lecturer in Freiburg starting in 1965 and as a professor from 1968 until his retirement in 1997. His students included Anselm Kiefer, Klaus Merkel, and Eva Rosenstiel. Throughout his career, his works were exhibited internationally, with notable shows in locations such as San Francisco, California, Geneva, and the United Kingdom.
Series and Subject Matter
Dreher was a realistic and figurative painter who focused on several distinct series. Most notably, he began the series Tag um Tag guter Tag in 1974, in which he painted the same empty glass more than 5,000 times. This process involved painting the glass at least fifty times a year, both at night and during the daytime, centered on a 25 x 20cm neutral grey ground from the same distance at life scale. He described this repetitive process as being similar to meditation.
Beyond his glass series, his body of work included:
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