Peter Booth

Discussion of the artist and their artwork, with a focus on how they respond to the world
they live in
Any interesting points about their background (where and when they lived and anything
they did or experienced that impacts their practice, how and why)
A discussion of some critical quotes about their work and how you think they have
related to and interpreted the Australian landscape
(500 word document based on the seminar must be submitted)

Artist
Peter Booth is an Australian post modern, contemporary artist born in 1940. Hes a figurative
and surrealist painter, with his main themes being centred around intense emotions with dark
narratives and obscure symbolism.
Born the son of a miner, the industrial world of Sheffield, England had influenced Booths works
from a young age. Booth and his family moved to Australia when he was 18 years old. These
two major life events combined with Booth working as a labourer for several years has started
his phase of horrifying figures and war scenes. Booths artworks focus heavily on the Australian
landscape, both urban rural, because of his migration to Australia, his artworks explore the
relationship between the environment and individual and also how he sees the future.

Audience
Peter Booths artworks are highly personal, laced with symbolic meaning that is often very hard to
decode, and as such, he has no specific intended audience that his works are targeted to.
In the article View from the booth posted to Fairfax Digital, Ashley Crawford states Booth's
landscapes are charged with emotion and symbolic meaning. Memories of his childhood in the
blackened industrial landscape of Sheffield seem to infuse the work
He has been written about in major articles and galleries and his works have been displayed at
museums and sold at auctions.
World
His works are postmodern and have post apocalyptic views on the future, these views hold
negative connotations and provoke a sense of destruction and depict a vivid aftermath of our
australian landscape.

Artwork
Untitled (Burning landscape with man and snake), circa 1976
gouache on paper
55.5 x 75.0 cm

Peter Booths Burning Landscape with Man and Snake is gouache on paper, made in 1976. The
painting depicts a burning landscape, with a mountainous sunset in the background. A man is
positioned in the centre of the painting, staring directly at those who look at the artwork. Various
objects are scattered throughout the landscape, each laced with interpersonal meaning that only
makes true sense to Peter Booth. To the right of the image, a snake is seen jumping through a
hoop. Snakes have held heavy symbolic meaning since the dawn of time, representing evil. The
fact that such an evil creature is forced to jump through hoops shows that the world Booth has
created in this artwork is burning to the ground. The factory like building and human figures in
the background and foreground suggests that this destruction of the land is caused by humans.
Booths use of colours plays a key role in the interpretation of the work, bleak greys and browns
are laid down as the ground and sky while warm fiery tones engulf those around it, a thin strip of
blue is placed in the back below the mountains, acting as a body of water. His use of colours
create a vivid understanding of how Peter Booth sees the future, dark and apocalyptic.