| AN ARTIST BEWEEN CULTURES |  |
Already in 1960 at high school Peter Dittmar started seriously practicing painting.
After teaching arts for 15 years in Munich he started to work in BALI in 1982,
which became his second home and studio. From his studios in Munich, Bali and from 2002 in Sydney he made solo exhibitions in twelve countries in Europe, Asia and Australia. He also attended international art fairs and showed in museums.
During his long professional career he changed his way of expression a few times.
He was painting landscapes till1983. In BALI he began to work abstract in the tradition of the “Informal” and “Abstract Expressionism” but was more and more interested and influenced by the spiritual praxis of ZEN meditation which resulted in producing abstract calligraphic paintings for about 20 years.
Around 2013 he made again a shift and started to produce paintings he called “Colour Windows”, which by design at the beginning were very minimal but he later integrated his calligraphic experience into this artworks.
In 2019 Peter sold his Bali home and studio after 37 years working on the island.
In 2020 he opened a new studio space in his Sydney home and is focusing on social-political contents of his artwork
In 2025 will be the opening of PETER DITTMAR's ART SPACE at
"Tony Raka Gallery and Art Centre " for the permanent display of significant
art works of different periods as well as a sales venue till 2045.
Since more than twenty years Peter Dittmar has been wrapped up in this process of intercultural translation and moves continually between three continents. He lives in Sydney, in Munich, his place of birth where stays have become rare and in his studio in Bali, his artistic refuge for some 36 years now. In terms of 'postcolonial studies' hybrid identity develops when once separate spheres of influence overlay and mix. 'Early education, the influence of the tropics, the power of meditation and Balinese spirituality forms a mixture of Eastern and Western influence', as Peter Dittmar himself describes it.
Dr. Elisabeth Wagner, art historian, Humboldt University, Berlin
There are not many people who are ready to engage in such a daring adventure which includes the entire person and can have unforeseen effects. But these are the people who are shaping Culture. Peter Dittmar is one of them.
In 1982 he came to Indonesia and Bali for the first time, invited by myself
from the GOETHE INSTITUT Jakarta to organise a German Cultural Week and to teach at the Academy of Fine Arts.
Since then he has remained captivated by this wonderful country, especially
the fascination of Bali.
He finally built his studio in Ubud and could more often be found there than
in Germany.
I am happy to have been able to watch this enduring encounter since it's
beginning.
Peter Dittmar's paintings, presented by Indonesian, Asian, Australian, and
European private collections, galleries and museums, show the strong influences which gradually changed his work.
This artist and his work and both their developments during these 23 years
are for me like a metaphore for our world in which different cultures have to open up to each other and in which we urgently need such sensitive and daring artists.
Dr. Hans Georg Knopp, Secretary General of Goethe Institute
What'S UP
PETER DITTMAR
