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Pedersen’s concentrated study of the human form and condition most often take on the form of the human head, communicating his faith in the value of the human experience.

Pedersen’s paintings are reaching for meaning and universal truths. They do not assume the identity of any individual man (or woman), but rather portray all men. They are provocative  in such an engaging way as to be difficult to ignore. Pedersen’s simple images make such a strong appeal to the conscious mind that the immediate emotional response – which is to dismiss their grotesque existence – is withheld by the very necessity of interpreting their meaning.

Pedersen’s images seem definitely perceptual (or founded on a perception of objective reality), and yet the mutations which they have undergone are baffling. The actual textural surfaces suggest terrifying wounds or charred skin, such as atomic warfare or some horrible, inhuman torture might produce. The pity that the images provoke demand reasons for this deformation.

Paul A. Chew, Director

The Westmoreland County Museum of Art

Greensburg, Pennsylvania

Douglas Pedersen, One-Man Show, March, 1963

1929-2007