Manitoba and Mennonite Heritage by Peter von Kampen

Recently I spent an afternoon at the River Heights home of Peter von Kampen. He talked about his life, his journey from Russia to Canada, his decades of creating art and music. We looked at dozens of paintings spanning more than 50 years, including his first, created in 1950, and his latest, not yet finished.

I first met von Kampen in 1986 shortly after I arrived in Winnipeg. Our paths crossed occasionally up to 1998 when I began working at the MHCGallery. From that time we have interacted on a regular basis. He faithfully attends most gallery events and exhibitions.

I am not aware of anyone in the Mennonite community who has been making art from within a church community longer than von Kampen. With that in mind, this exhibition is a thank you to him for more than five decades of enthusiastic artistic pursuit as a painter and musician.

Von Kampen’s journey, as for many Mennonites of his generation, did not begin easily. Born in the Ukraine in 1926, his early years were spent in the volatile times under Stalin, when many millions perished needlessly, including thousands of Mennonites. In the midst of war and persecution, von Kampen was one of the thousands of Mennonites who fled Russia in 1943. He was among the fortunate minority of those who fled who eventually made it to safety in the West, settling in Winnipeg in October 1947.

Initially, von Kampen said, he did not find anything about Manitoba to be attractive. He saw only a flat and cold land. Scrolling through his many Manitoba scenes it is readily evident that his attitude towards his now beloved home province has changed. His artworks, whether of landscapes, or of old Mennonite buildings in southern Manitoba, are lovingly created.