“Art is a certain door to freedom, it opens up many things and is experimental and makes people contemplate.”
Peter Lorenz was born in Leverkusen (West Germany) in 1946. He moved to Berlin in 2012. Lorenz studied painting and graphic design in Wuppertal and etching in Münster. His abstract Wall painting depicts the fall of the Wall and chaotic scenes of collapse and rebirth.
Peter Lorenz in the interview
The much-photographed work by Peter Lorenz shows the Brandenburg Gate the night the Wall fell. On the left, the flags of the nations involved in reunification – Germany, Russia, and the United States – can be seen. The right of the picture is dominated by images of chaos, collapse and rebirth, the artist has said. In this way, the artist commented that the fall of the Wall marked the end of ideologies. In 2009 he retouched the painting, adapting it to his evolving style of painting.
Lorenz studied painting and graphic design in Wuppertal and etching at the academy of arts in Münster. He has said that he learned most from his father, the painter Kurt Lorenz. Since 1969 he has exhibited in Germany and abroad, including in the National Gallery of Jakarta (Indonesia). Since 2012 he has lived and worked in Berlin. Peter Lorenz works with self-mixed paints on various surfaces and often in large formats. In addition to painting, he is also active as a blues musician.