Collectable

Peter Friedl and the childhood drawings

collectable

These drawings display the formal elements and the iconography that has gradually shaped Friedl’s universe over the years. The handwritten text, the use of colours, the recurring motifs, signs and symbols, and the historical references in the drawings are also present in many other works by the artist.

This extensive archive clearly draws on autobiographical and historical references, although it is not the only time that the artist has used children’s drawings in his work. Some of his own childhood drawings became the basis for later works, and he has also used drawings by his own children, and footage of groups of children. Friedl turns to supposedly minor genres such as documents, tableaux vivants or childhood drawings in order to challenge the accepted logic of representation.