Local Painter to Be Honored at Lobby for the Arts

The Provident Bank’s Lobby for the Arts in Hampton is pleased to present the paintings of artist Wolfgang Ertl.

The public is invited to an Artists’ Reception honoring Wolfgang Ertl on Thursday, April 26, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at . Light refreshments will be served.

The exhibit is on display to the public during regular bank hours through May 2012 at The Provident Bank’s Hampton branch.

Hampton resident Wolfgang Ertl has had a lifelong interest in the history and theory of art and first tried his hand at painting as a youth in Germany, always equally drawn to abstract compositions and representational landscapes. Demands of his academic career in literature allowed for only sporadic indulgence in painting.

As professor emeritus at the University of Iowa, Ertl moved to York, Maine, in the summer 2005 and relocated to Hampton in 2010, where he has been devoted almost full time to exploring new techniques and possibilities of artistic expression. 

Working mostly in his preferred mediums of pastel and oil as well as acrylics on occasion, Ertl’s paintings have been exhibited in solo and small group shows and various juried exhibitions in Maine and New Hampshire. In recent years, his paintings have turned to representational imagined and real landscapes, mostly inspired by the seacoast of New England and Florida.

As an academic, Ertl’s specialization is German literature and culture from the 19th century to the present, with emphasis on East German and post-unification
literature, lyric poetry, as well as interdisciplinary studies in literature and ecology. He has published five books and numerous articles and reviews, and he is co-editor of Glossen, an online scholarly journal on literature and art in German speaking countries. 

The Provident Bank’s Lobby for the Arts program, celebrating its 15th year, is an ongoing series of local art exhibits displayed at all The Provident Bank branch lobbies. The Bank receives no commissions for artwork sold, and pays all expenses associated with the exhibit. For more information please contact Scott Beattie, Hampton branch manager, at 603-758-1630.

Established in 1828, The Provident Bank is an independent, mutually owned full-service community bank based in Amesbury, Massachusetts, with offices also in Newburyport, Massachusetts and Exeter, Portsmouth and Seabrook, New Hampshire. Deposits are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Depositors Insurance Fund (DIF). This combination of FDIC and DIF insurance provides customers of The Provident Bank with full deposit insurance.