Peter Boggs: Transfigured Realities

Description

How does a gallery choose which artists it will represent?...In the case of Peter Boggs, the recommendation came from an illustrious source, the late, great Margaret Olley.- Philip Bacon In an age when time is measured in nanoseconds and information is conveyed in sound bites, Peter Boggs's art may appear as strangely anachronistic with its emphasis on timelessness and distilled beauty. His art is a triumph of slow art. His paintings are generally quite small, exquisitely crafted, with their tonality and geometry beautifully resolved. In them, everything has been specially arranged and re-arranged to the point that any further change would be to the detriment of the whole. There is something that is very intimate about his art, even diaristic, secretive and seductive, but there is no explicit narrative. The paintings are not about something, there is no obvious storyline, but at the same time they are very meaningful, they denote emotional and spiritual realities and they do this through visual and not verbal means. ...I feel that his art taps into that which lies beyond the obvious, beyond the surface. Whereas the Surrealists quite often communicate this with a literary narrative, which they illustrate, Boggs communicates this through tonal means, visually exploiting sacred geometry. His is the art of 'visual' rather than 'verbal' intelligence. It is quiet and meditative and invites contemplation in search of spiritual enrichment.

Sasha Grishin AM, FAHA, is an Emeritus Professor at the Australian National University and works internationally as an art historian, art critic and curator. He studied at the universities of Melbourne, Moscow, London and Oxford and has served several terms as visiting scholar at Harvard University. In 2004 he was elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, in 2005 he was awarded the Order of Australia (AM) for services to Australian art and art history and in 2008 was awarded a Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning. He has published over twenty-five books and over two thousand articles and catalogue essays dealing with various aspects of art.