Judge Flinn
Oil, 36" x 32", 2003
Private Collection,
St. Cloud, MN


Typical comment
on the artist work:

Petheo was trained and works in the mainstream European tradition to which Oskar Kokoschka belongs; his paintings emphasize the lyrical and atmospheric beauties of nature and the subtleties of personality keenly observed. Like Kokoschka, he elicits these with a rich and heightened palette and brushwork, but unlike him, he also brings to his work a firm and precise order relatively few artists have so convincingly achieved.

Prof. Marcel Fransiscono,
University of Illinois,
Champaign, IL

Style and Subject Matter, Technique

The artist's vision of the world via observation and imagination doesn't readily fit within any convention or category. His strong academic realistic foundation is modified by a Kokoschka-type Austrian Expressionism with lessons learned from French Impressionism. There is also a Hopper-type surrealism in his work, which, together with his bold presentation established his unique voice. His subject and body of work encompasses all the main branches of Western painting such as landscape, self-portrait, portraits, still lifes, figurative works as well as illustrative-allegorical works.

Techniques include simple pencil drawings and water based media, but the artist works primarily in oils.


Literature

For exhaustive background information such as selected one-man shows, related group shows, publications and lectures by the artist, publications about the artist, work reproduced, workshops and related matters consult:

J. Gray Sweeney, Bela Petheo, Painter of the Center in our Age of Extremes

St. John's University, Collegeville MN 1985, 95 pages several Black and White, 16 color reproductions.

Also Nathan Goldstein or Evan M. Maurer, Bela Petheo A Retrospective 1985-2000 SJU Art Center August- October 2001 St. John's University Collegeville MN 2001 84 pages see also several color and B&W reproductions.

For connections see also Bela Petheo, Mission and Commissions: Oskar Koksochka in Minnesota 1949-1957 St. John's University, 77 pages, 8 color, several B&W reproductions, 1991 see p.77


Work in Public Collections
(partial listing)

And several other college, university, gallery, and corporate collections throughout the Midwest, New York, Chicago and elsewhere.

Private collections in Europe and USA too numerous to mention.