Artists
Per Kirkeby
Per Kirkeby is among the most internationally acclaimed and prolific Danish artists. His work is influenced by a background in arctic geology, along with an interest in both the natural and built environment. An early member of the ‘Eks-skolen’ (The Experimental Art School), his approach remained iconoclastic throughout his career. As he has mentioned, ‘The role of art is to accept that things break down. That is the only way to get something new to emerge’. Known for the variety of media in his practice, he fearlessly combined painting, sculpture, and printmaking using a multitude of techniques to explore the tensions between abstraction and representation. Reoccurring motifs of architecture, structures, rocks, figures, flora and fauna appear within a wide-ranging palette of radiant to earthy colours and deep inky blacks.
Artist bio
Danish artist Per Kirkeby (1938–2018, Copenhagen) joined Eks-skolen (The Experimental Art School), Copenhagen (1962) and graduated from University of Copenhagen, MA, Arctic Geology (1964). He was Professor at Academy of Art, Karlsruhe (1978-89) and Professor at Die Städelschule, Frankfurt (1989-2000). He is represented in collections including Centre Pompidou, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Statens Museum for Kunst (SMK), Copenhagen; Tate Modern, London; among others. ris.