Peter Wegner: The Centenarians

Image:
Peter WEGNER
Myrtle Hooper [b. 1912; d. 2021 aged 108]

1st Jul — 28th Aug 2022
Simpson Gallery

The Centenarians celebrates a project which commenced in 2013 when acclaimed artist Peter Wegner drew his Aunty Rita. This formative sitting inspired Wegner to seek out other Centenarians who were still living lives with mobility, curiosity and purpose. In the eight years since Rita’s portrait, the artist has completed portraits of well over 100 Centenarians across Victoria and New South Wales.

Of his process, Wegner explains “Each drawing was completed from life in an afternoon or morning with little alteration to that first impression, they are moments captured within a time allowed.”

“The exploration of ageing and how well we age is central to this project. Maintaining human dignity and independent living are important issues as we age, alongside the question of what it means to have a productive and meaningful life. One’s good fortune in life was acknowledged by nearly all of my sitters—sometimes bewilderment about having reached such an age was expressed.”

Through the artist’s footnotes viewers are offered a glimpse into the life of a Centenarian, though Wegner points out these “by no means bestow the answer to longevity—as individual as each Centenarian is, so too are the reasons for their survival.” Within the suite of twenty works presented are a number of local Centenarians.

A Melbourne-based figurative painter, sculptor, and draughtsman, Wegner’s work has focused on the examination of the human; he bears witness to people’s lives for a short moment, and uses the portrait as part of the shared experience. Fittingly, Wegner was awarded the Archibald Prize in 2021—the exhibition’s own centenary—with a portrait of Australian artist Guy Warren AM, who had turned 100 in April.