Out to the People! The pictures of Peter Peitersen

Bricklayer, illustrator, graphic designer. Peter Peitersen (1922-1988) was a versatile man. He lived and breathed to improve life for the workers. He was born in Aarhus, Jutland, where he also lived most of his life. Every day he walked from one building site to the other estimating the prices of the work the bricklayers were to do He knew the streets, the workplaces and the pubs like the back of his hand. Above all, he knew the people he encountered there. His pictures are about these people.

In the mid-1950s, he also attended a course, where he drew a live model. He never had any other artistic training and taught himself the rest. In the 1950s he exhibited his pictures with the artist group De 10 at Aarhus town hall, but this wasn’t satisfying.

He didn’t want to create pictures only to exhibit them. His pictures were to depict the reality of the worker and the unemployed. They were to be seen by ordinary people and give them a feeling of community.

The pictures in the exhibition are a present to the Workers Museum from Peter Peitersen’s son, Peiter Andersen. The collection illustrates how Peter Peitersen saw art as a natural part of life. Through art, he could make himself be heard and protest the injustices in society.

The exhibiton is situated on the assebly hall balcony.