Seeing the Infinite in the Ordinary: Peter Dreher’s Glass Paintings
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A lifelong series
Painting over 40 years his most famous series “Day by Day Good Day”, which included more than 5,000 variations of the same water glass, Peter Dreher (1932 – 2020) meditated on the act of seeing and challenged the limits of painting itself.
The series is divided in two parts, works made in the daytime and those made at nighttime. The main rule the artist followed was to finish the work within the same day. The light reflections on the glass change from canvas to canvas, depending on the time of the day or night.
Every glass was always depicted at the same distance, on the same worktop and with the same setting. Measuring 25 x 20 cm, the artworks, at first glance, seem to be identical, but each of them has a unique light, shadow and reflection.
Not limitation but rather liberation
“Adherence to one motif and its repetition does not represent a limitation but rather a liberation. It allows me to concentrate on what is really important to me – the painting process itself. For this reason, I would describe myself as a happy Sisyphus. Rolling a boulder up a hill over and over again is neither destiny nor punishment but rather a self-made decision that I feel very comfortable with, because I succeed in seeing my subject (the glass) afresh each time – as if I were seeing it for the first time.”
From the interview with Peter Dreher, Angeria Rigamonti di Cutò, Studio International
Performing an activity for its own sake
The confinement to a single motif gave to Dreher the chance to concentrate entirely on the painting and its unlimited possibilities and opened up an opportunity to liberate his oeuvre from the compulsion to continuously reinvent himself.
Approaching every work of the series as if for the first time, the minute differences such as slightly different light, dissimilar reflections of the rear window or the appearance of the glass in each painting become the absolute protagonists. In fact, the attention of the observer is drawn to subtle nuances that make each painting unique.
Tag um Tag guter Tag (Day by Day good Day) #2455 (Day), 2013
DAY
Tag um Tag guter Tag (Day by Day good Day) #2456 (Day), 2013
DAY
Tag um Tag guter Tag (Day by Day good Day) #1940 (Night), 2002
NIGHT
Tag um Tag guter Tag (Day by Day good Day) #2563 (Night), 2010
NIGHT
