Peter Schmidt (artist) - Works

Works

Peter Schmidt met Brian Eno as a visiting lecturer at Ipswich art school in the late 1960s and later became a friend and collaborator. They found they had both independently arrived at a system of using little quotes and axioms to overcome artistic obstacles. They combined efforts to publish the Oblique Strategies cards in 1975. Brian Eno commented on Schmidt. The Oblique Strategies seem to have been an out growth of Schmidt's own "Thoughts Behind The Thoughts".

Peter Schmidt has two prints from 1971, both called "Flowing in the Right Direction" in the Tate Collection. Five of Schmidt's Monoprints from late 1968 are in the UK Government Art Collection that maintains and exhibits works in various government buildings. Several of these Monoprints can be seen in the James Bond 007 film "Her Majesty's Secret Service".

Schmidt created 1500 different silk screen portraits of Brian Eno, four of which are used on the cover of the LP Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy). The Robert Fripp and Brian Eno LP Evening Star has on its cover a Schmidt painting.

Brian Eno included four watercolor prints of Schmidt's work with the first edition of his LP Before and after Science and famously wrote in its liner notes: "Apart from our collaboration on this record, Peter and I have been working together and comparing notes for some time. In 1975 we produced a boxed set of oracle cards called "Oblique Strategies", which were used extensively in the making of this record."

Schmidt created the water color painting, "Portrait of Eno with Allusions" originally considered for the cover of the "Before and After Science" LP.

Many of his later works were abstract/realist landscapes produced and sold in Iceland. His work was collected by the actors Terence Stamp and Julie Christie.