top of page

Born in 1931, Peter was a refugee from East Prussia who, in 1945, fled to Germany with his family when he was an impressionable teenager. Those experiences left a deep scar, as this Manifesto, written for the catalogue of his first one-man show at the Burnaby Art Gallery in 1976, clearly shows.

I am compulsively creative.

The answer lies in my reaction to a world I perceived as overwhelmingly chaotic, hostile and destructive, the world of war-ravaged Germany... creating my own world and my self out of that world was my only defence, my survival method in a world insanely bent on destruction. In this sense, my creativity has a religious significance... my art is my religion.

His creative output was extremely diverse, and included paintings, drawings, sculpture, photography, boats, furniture and jewelry. He practiced all the arts of his ancestors, all except architecture. This was a lifelong disappointment.

For the fascinating story of his life, his art, and his marriage, visit REBEL MUSE, My Life with Peter Paul Ochs, on Amazon Kindle books. You can also order the print version, a second, updated edition with more details about Ochs' early life, at proword@shaw.ca

Story of Raven, Peter's most important public commission, is situated behind the Royal BC Museum and Archives in Victoria, BC. It was one of six public commissions completed in 1967 for the opening of the Museum. The text on the plaque reads as follows: 

STORY OF RAVEN, 1967

Peter Paul Ochs, (1931 - 1994)

This is one of six sculptures by BC artists the BC government commissioned for the new Provincial Museum and Archives complex - a 1967 Canadian Centennial Project. Cast in white cement and onyx aggregate, it represents - in the words of the artists - an "homage to the creative spirit" which he experienced during contact with the Gitxsan artists in the Skeena area in 1965.

Born in East Prussia, Peter Ochs came to Canada in 1952. He worked in forest logging camps before studying sculpture in Paris (1956) and then Hamburg (1957). Ochs taught high school in Summerland and the Fraser Valley. His works was shown at the University of British Columbia, (1958), the Seattle Art Museum (1959), the National Gallery of Canada, (1964), and in numerous private exhibitions. He was a founding member of the Sculptors' Society of BC in 1974.

​

​

bottom of page