Papers of Peter Corbett 1952-2009

The records comprise the work and personal papers of Peter Corbett. The material has been arranged into four main sections:

• Artistic Productions D1040/1
• Typescripts D1040/2
• Personal Papers D1040/3
• Printed Material and Ephemera D1040/4

Peter Corbett is an internationally recognised artist, well known for his experimentation with oil on canvas as well as his talent as a poet. Whilst studying for a BA (Honours) at the Manchester College for Fine Art and Design, Corbett had a preoccupation with water and natural organic forms. This shaped his undergraduate work and culminated in a series of paintings which he termed organic abstraction. After graduating in 1974 Corbett became interested in mysticism; his vision for his artwork was to capture the enigmatic and ambiguous and create pieces where content and form become indistinguishable from one another. In 1987, Corbett invented the double-edging technique, a method of painting which uses two sides of the same brush stroke simultaneously to create a three dimensional appearance. His work has been displayed in exhibitions on a local, national and international scale.

Corbett has also had numerous works of poetry published in anthologies and has also twice published a selection of his own poems in Tales From Ere When (2001) and The Pool of Life (2003). He has been awarded the title of Honorary Professor in Universities in Paris, Australia and Germany. In 2002 he was awarded a World Lifetime Achievement award by the American Biographical Institute. Corbett is the Chair and Founder Member of the Merseyside Visual Arts Festival which contributed towards a proposal for Liverpool to be Capital of Culture in 2006. He was recently awarded the Holt Educational Trust Fund Award in Liverpool in 2009.

Information for users

The collection is open to bona fide researchers.

Matthew Clough, Director of the Victoria Gallery and Museum.

Finding aid is available for consultation in the reading room.

Listed by Helen Donald, using Xemacs SGML authoring software 2010 (First section listed by Katie Ankers, using Xemacs Open Source Text Editor, 2009).

Original paintings held by the University of Liverpool's Victoria Gallery and Museum.

Licensing and reproduction rules available on request.

Future accruals possible.