"One of the functions of art is to offer a more desirable reality; a model as it were, of another style of existence with its own pace and its own cultural reference."

"In a roomful of shouting people, the one who whispers becomes interesting."

       - Peter Schmidt 

Peter Schmidt was an artist and teacher in England. He was bon in 1931 and died while on holiday in Spain in 1980. He was part of a generation of art school teachers in the 1960s and 1970s that had great impact on some students who later went on to work in music. He worked with Hansjörg Mayer and may have had associations with Mark Boyle and Tom Phillips.

Schmidt was a teacher of Brian Eno at art school in the 1960s and later they found they had both independently arrived at a system of using little quotes and axioms to overcome artistic obstacles. They combined efforts to publish the Oblique Strategies cards in 1975.

He appears mostly known for his work with Brian Eno on the Oblique Strategies The cards have inspired a few generations of artists in various mediums. See also http://www.rtqe.net/ObliqueStrategies/ and Eno's comments on Schmidt at http://www.rtqe.net/ObliqueStrategies/Edition1-3.html#schmidt.

Five of his prints from late 1968 are in a UK government art collection that hangs works in various government buildings. See http://www.gac.culture.gov.uk/home/index.asp

Brian Eno included 4 watercolor prints of Schmidt's work with one of his LPs, Before and After Science. See http://www.rtqe.net/ObliqueStrategies/Watercolour.html.

Schmidt apparently had some connections to the Beaux Art gallery.

Other students of Peter Schmidt include Colin Newman of the band Wire [[1]], who studied under him at Watford School of Art around 1975.