Peter Roehr

Peter Roehr (* September 1, 1944 in Lauenburg in Pommern; † August 15, 1968 in Frankfurt am Main) was a German artist.

Untitled (No. 33-6-66), 1966, board on wood, 20,5 x 20 cm, Collection Paul Maenz / picture: Heinz Thate 10/1970

Life

Roehr was the only child of Kurt and Eleonora Röhr. After their divorce the mother moved with her child first to Leipzig and then to Frankfurt am Main. After visiting the Volksschule he completed an apprenticeship as producer for electronic signage in Frankfurt am Main.[1] Afterward he studied from 1962 to 1966 at the Werkkunstschule (today RheinMain University of Applied Sciences) in Wiesbaden. He studied in the class of Vincent Weber and graduated in 1966. His early works were made in 1962 and 1963. In 1964 Roehr met Paul Maenz, who later became an import art dealer. Roehr was in close contact with the artists Charlotte Posenenske and Thomas Bayrle, who lived in Frankfurt as well.

In May 1967 Roehr and Paul Maenz organized in the Studio Galerie of the Goethe University Frankfurt a groundbreaking exhibition entitled Serielle Formationen where works by Carl Andre, Jan Dibbets, Hans Haacke, Donald Judd, Piero Manzoni and Jan Schoonhoven were shown.

Peter Roehr died at the age of 23 from cancer.

Work

During a period of five years Roehr produced more than 600 works. They can be categorized in ten groups. Each group is defined by the material the regarded work is made of. Roehrs Oeuvre can be labelled as conceptual art because he aligned each work to the conception of the unvaried repetition.[2]

Quotation

"I alter material by organizing it unchanged. Each work is an organized area of identical elements. Neither successive nor additive, there is no result or sum." (1964)

"I assemble available things of the same kind together. These might, for example, be: objects, photographs, freestanding forms such as letters, texts, tones and sounds, film-material, etc. The results I call montages" (1965)[3]

Exhibitions (selection)

References
  1. Peter Roehr, 1944–1968, exhibition catalogue, Städtisches Museum Leverkusen, Morsbroich Museum, 1972, p. 72
  2. Peter Roehr, Frieze Magazine, Issue 60, June–August 2001 Archived June 26, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
  3. Peter Roehr, exhibition catalogue, Kunsthalle Tübingen, 1972, book cover ISBN 3-7701-955-4
  4. Fünf Jahre und kein bisschen mehr, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 08/1968, February 19, 1968, p. 76
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