Peter Brandes - Twelve

In 2002 Peter Brandes created a large-scale decoration, consisting of 6 large glass mosaics, for Vejlå Church in Ishøj. An American collector and patron of the arts saw this important work and encouraged the artist to decorate a recently constructed church in Los Angeles with glass mosaics and alter silver. The church has twelve window panes, and the artist soon realised that the motif should be the twelve apostles. The artist has worked on this task for a considerable period of time and has made numerous sketches in as different techniques as watercolour, drawing and etching as well as more than 50 sketches in glass. The glasswork has been made at Per Steen Hebsgaard, while the alter silver has been made in cooperation with silversmith Per Sax Møller.
Now, the final twelve glass mosaics and the silverworks will be presented to a Danish audience before they are all shipped to the U.S.

The Gothic style brought the light of Heaven into our churches, and at the same time stained glass became an important artistic element in their decoration. The radiant, deep colours of the glass in the images and symbols of the Christian faith were brought to life and filled with the brilliance of the sun and the changing seasons.
Stained glass has its own history and a technique that has evolved through centuries of collaboration between creative artists and outstanding craftsmen. In Denmark, thanks to his superb decoration of Vejleå Church in 2000 with six large stained glass windows, Peter Brandes has achieved an outstanding modern triumph and ensured a renewed interest in this wealth of church art material. In Per Steen Hebsgaard, Peter Brandes has found the great, masterly sensitivity and skill that have made it possible to bring this artist’s gifts to their full fruition.
The same can be said about the colaboration between Peter Brandes and Per Sax Møller, creating the Church silver.
The art and craftsmanship of stained glass have always had their place in the Danish Museum of Decorative Art, both in the collections, the research and the promotional activities, and so it was obvious that we should invite Peter Brandes to exhibit his magnificent, recently completed decorative work consisting of twelve stained glass windows symbolising the twelve Apostles and a thirteenth of the Crucified Christ designed for a church in Los Angeles before they leave these shores in the autumn. The exhibition provides a unique insight into the lengthy work process that has taken the artist from the first sketches to the moving presentation of the symbols of the Apostles in the finished works, the road from flesh, blood and pain to purification in the emblematic signs.
Over many years, Peter Brandes has prepared himself for these stained glass decorations by working in glass and absorbing himself in the world of Christian motifs. So it is a matter of great fortune that great undertakings are given to the right artist at the right time.
The Danish Museum of Art & Design would like to express its gratitude to Peter Brandes, Roberta and Howard Ahmanson and the Galerie Moderne for allowing The Twelve to make a brief stopover in the Museum and thus to help stimulate the interest in and understanding of stained glass as a rich artistic genre in its own right and in interplay with architectural creation.

Last updated 08.12.2010