Andrew Wilson in conversation with Andreas Leventis for the launch of 'Peter Joseph' the Monograph
13 June 2025
On Saturday 8 March, Andrew Wilson was in conversation with Andreas Leventis at Lisson Gallery to celebrate the publication of 'Peter Joseph: A Monograph'. The event took place during ‘Peter Joseph: The Early Works’, the artist's 17th solo exhibition at Lisson Gallery.
Over the course of many decades, Peter Joseph dedicated his practice to seeking the potential in constraint. He rose to critical acclaim in the late 1960s with a series of large-scale and daring environmental works. He retreated from public view in the 1970s to concentrate on meditative, two-colour paintings, which set one rectangle within a border of a darker shade. These works, popular with discerning collectors and critics, are characterised by perfect symmetry. Every decision about colour and proportion can be seen as redolent of time, mood or place and evince his close study of the Old Masters, classical architecture, and American Abstract Expressionists like Barnett Newman and Mark Rothko. Towards the end of his career Joseph departed from this fixed format, allowing loose brushwork and natural tones to generate new kinds of feeling.
Film by Laura Bushell.