Peter Skovgaard

Peter Skovgaard (1960)

 

Peter Skovgaard is born in Copenhagen in 1960. Skovgaard is a well known and cherished artist locally and around the world. 

Skovgaard has always followed his own paths without depending on traditional art schools or censored art exhibition. Skovgaard´s artistic expression is impulsive, expressive and often non-figurative. His abstract paintings are known by big, soft, almost organic brush strokes in a unique flow and a convincing sense of colour. The paintings links to the artworks of Asger Jorn and Per Kirkeby, especially Kirkeby when it comes to the choice of colour, which are often earth tones complemented by simple more bright colours.

Furthermore, there are always much black, grey and white in Skovgaard´s strokes, which serve as a special thread through his paintings. The choice of base colours and painting techniques have a certain Nordic feel to it but some colours stand out and have more of a Southern feel in a harmonious yet contradicting interaction. There is an art to creating good and durable abstract artworks and Skovgaard excels in that art form. Skovgaard´s soft flow and the complimentary colours are cherished by many and for good reason because Skovgaard is a contemporary Danish master of abstract painting. We don´t have many abstract painters but Skovgaard is a great representative of the abstract art form.
Peter Skovgaard´s expressive paintings are easily recognisable with their combination of coloured surfaces with black brush strokes on top. They don´t require interpretation but look more like poems, which intention are to test the possibilities of expressions in painting – expressions which purpose are to communicate directly to its observer. 

Peter Skovgaard pursue a subtile kind of art in a search for authenticity, which isn´t influenced by either political, moral or personal beliefs. The art is supposed to draw its observer out of the bland indifference and being more than just a comment on contemporary subjects and questioning instead of providing answers. But Skovgaard´s painting are also just very nice to look at. There is a compositional calmness and clarity in his paintings, which make them nice to keep looking at. You could call them soft abstractions and thereby separate Skovgaard as a painter from the abstract artists who often uses rough brush strokes and strong colours.

Skovgaard´s paintings seem undisturbed due to their big white surface, which create the background for a discreet yet searching experiment. Skovgaard´s paintings radiate freshness and impulsiveness. As if he has just dropped his brush and left. Ole Jul describes Skovgaard´s abstract paintings this way: ”Standing in front of Peter Skovgaard´s painting you experience the feeling that this painting process has just been finished here and now. The painting is apparently created without rational control but with an open mind for impulses; balanced between the well thought out and the impulsive. The motive in its simple, chaotic, wild, silent or nervously fast expression gain a white room and freedom to be in its state.” Besides Skovgaard´s great number of paintings, he has also created installations, paper decorations and sculptures. Peter Skovgaard lives in Århus and Berlin. He has exhibited his paintings in a great number of galleries along with censored exhibitions as well as at solo and group exhibitions natioanlly and around the world. He has exhibited his art in Galerie Wolfsen in Aalborg, in Oslo, Italy, London, Amsterdam, Berlin and Marseille.