In light of the repetition

Peter Brandes continuously plays through and reinterprets selected basic cultural narratives with his art. These shared narratives, which are otherwise easily forgotten in today's high-speed society, he retrieves from the history of civilization, biblical material and mythology. Often with suggestive visual expressions that convey important experience and open to reflection more than they postulate ready-made answers. His works re-actualize and throw new perspectives into important narratives.
Our exhibition presents brand new works as well as traces that reach back in a practice that has a great internal coherence. The curating of the exhibition forms a key to a deeper understanding of the practice the artist has now developed over a lifetime.

The exhibition includes just over 175 works and sketches in ceramics, glass mosaics, drawings, graphics, photography, painting and sculpture, as well as a smaller room that lets us look into a tab of the enormous collection of antiques and medieval figures belonging to the artist and his wife. Thus, it provides a good opportunity to delve into some of the themes and stories that Peter Brandes has worked on for decades again and again to give a refined visual expression, as well as how he works to enhance the material and pictorial possibilities that lie in the various media.

Our large Column space is dedicated to provide an insight into some of the paths that led to his latest major decoration of the north chapel in Aarhus Cathedral, also known as the Sehested Chapel. The chapel was inaugurated in Easter 2023, and through the story of Lazarus and the chosen media his aim is to show the presence of God and to create a sacred space. At the same time, it tells about an artist who, now around the age of 80, continues to develop his expression in the form of “gesamtkunstwerk” to a large extent. At the exhibition you can see both direct processing and earlier traces in Peter Brandes work, which have led towards the choices he has made for this decoration. The audience thus has the opportunity to gain an insight into the creative process.

Another current story he reactualizes is drawn from the oldest times and is the relationship between Isaac and Ishmael. According to the Old Testament, they are Abraham's sons - two brothers each with their own mother, Isaac within marriage and Ishmael outside. Yet they are deeply connected and stand as progenitors of subsequent generations. In some of Peter Brande's most recent drawings and paintings, he turns this narrative over and over again in visual form in order to let new sides of the conflicts and connectedness emerge. It is also for this reason that the title of the current exhibition has been chosen: In the light of repetition.

Peter Brandes (b. 1944) is a loner in Danish art. He is self-taught and works tirelessly across media, preferably with highly skilled craftsmen in Europe on the sidelines. The decorations at home are now legion. Written reflections and book publications are part of his practice. At the same time, Brandes has made an international career with decorations both around Europe, Israel and the USA. He has lived half a century in France, as well as Ireland and Greece, and is now most often in Denmark.
  
The exhibition has been created in close collaboration between Peter Brandes, his gallery for 43 years Galerie Moderne Silkeborg and Art Center Silkeborg Bad. In this connection, we have untill now received crucial support from Nordic Bioscience Foundation, Danish Arts Foundation and New Carlsberg Foundation, to whom we owe a great deal of thanks for this goodwill in connection with Peter Brandes 80th anniversary celebration.