Paint Chip Explorations of Peter Wegner

In Peter Wegner’s exquisite group of three new paintings and a number of works on paper he uses paint chips as a point of departure. The work, however, is not simply an exploration of color. It relates much more to the intellectual rigor of the study of systems that preoccupied the conceptual artists of the 1960s and ‘70s. Wegner’s studies are articulated both as labor intensive drawings, in which he looks closely at the subtle relationships between similar colors, as well as carefully crafted large scale paintings. Language is an important element in Wegner’s work--the names of the colors he depicts are carefully chosen. There is nothing arbitrary here. The paintings appear as hard edged geometry, but they are in fact much more than that (Griffin Contemporary Exhibitions, Venice).

Peter Wegner, "72 Yellows," oil media
on MDF, 88 x 126 x 1 1/2", 2001.