The Zodiac of Wit: Peter Meller and the Graphic Imagination

A complementary exhibition of Meller’s work will also be on view at the Art, Design & Architecture Museum @ Jane Deering Gallery on view August 3–September 29, 2012 with an opening reception on First Thursday, August 2, 5-8 pm.

Using the simplest materials and techniques such as white-out, pen and ink, hand-carved stamps, markers and a Xerox machine, but in brilliantly imaginative ways, Hungarian-born, UCSB Art History Professor Peter Meller (1923–2008) created an impressive body of drawings and prints. Many of his designs reflect his training as a Classics scholar and feature traditional themes updated with comical, ironic, or poignant references to contemporary life. Sophisticated yet accessible, Meller’s work speaks to the full range of human experience – the passions of love, the pain of loss, the pleasures of life.