Anjas’ Theme Of The Week: Paper art week 6: Newspaper art by Gugger Petter

Newspaper art by Gugger Petter

Newspaper art by Gugger Petter

About Gugger Petter:
Gugger Petter is a Danish artist with an International career. She studied at Den Frie og Merkantile Kunstskole in Copenhagen, and at the Academy of Fine Art in Rome. She then moved to an extended residence in Mexico City, where she created large textile wall pieces for corporate venues and private collectors. In Belgium she created work for museum exhibitions, and after arriving to California in 1986, she started working with newspaper and three dimensional forms.

Gugger’s work has been widely exhibited in galleries and museums both in Europe and in America, and her list of private collectors / pemanent collections and commissions is extensive.

Newspaper art by Gugger Petter

Gugger about her art:
For the past twenty one years, I have worked with newspaper as my main medium, creating both two and three dimensional works with this material. My fascination with newspaper consists not only of its being "the diary of our lives," it also presents me with a black/white/and limited color palette, which has always been my choice. My work is most often based on a oversized image of an observation of daily life, which can be seen as an abstraction as well as a representational image, where surface, subject matter, color and content all convey tension between opposites.

Holding a profound respect for this material, I have never regarded it as "recycled" or "trash." Even the yellowing aspect of newsprint has been an important factor in my work, and I often encourage this process of yellowing before my work leaves my studio.

Newspaper art by Gugger Petter

Newsprint is normally known as a fragile material, but through my manipulation of the paper, which is rolled tightly into tubes and later sealed by varnish, it is transformed into a very strong and solid material. Yet I tend to "see" it as being fluid, since I construct each piece in the same free manner, much as a painter might use his brush.

Newspaper art by Gugger Petter

Although my work is constructed by weaving, it holds no intended connection to this tradition, and is only used as a constructive tool. The weaving technique permits me to create the desired heavy textured structure - a surface of controlled chaos which I often treat as a canvas by applying paint to the finished surface.

Newspaper art by Gugger Petter

I find the informative aspect of newspaper quite important. Since each piece I create holds all the world/local news of that particular time frame, it becomes an historic piece within itself. All artists date their oeuvre with great importance - reflecting their moment in time. My works not only hold a date, they also represent an historic documentation of our lives. This information may not be of importance to the viewer, but for me each piece becomes a diary.

Check out the artists website! guggerpetter.com