PER KIRKEBY
Per Kirkeby, a Danish painter, sculptor, writer, geologist, and filmmaker, was born in Copenhagen in 1938. He began his studies in natural sciences at the University of Copenhagen in 1957, subsequently participating in several expeditions to Greenland and working intermittently as a geologist during the 1960s and 1970s. Alongside his scientific studies, he began his artistic education in 1962 by joining the experimental Eks-skolen (The Experimental Art School) in Copenhagen, focusing on painting, graphic art, film, and various happenings. The experimental spirit of the school was closely connected to contemporary international art movements, including Pop Art, Fluxus, and the broader underground art scene.
Per Kirkeby achieved international recognition in the mid-1970s, primarily as an original painter and sculptor. Today, he is perhaps best known for his expressive paintings, which navigate the boundary between representational and abstract art. He freely incorporates various “subjects” as well as references to art history and its genres, although the subjects themselves hold little significance in the act of painting.
However, Kirkeby is much more than a painter. His architectural brick sculptures and large-scale bronze studies, closely related to painting, have become familiar through major international exhibitions in recent years. Kirkeby is also a prolific writer, having published nearly 50 volumes of essays, novels, and poetry. Between 1968 and 1989, he created a total of 25 experimental films.
Currently, Per Kirkeby is the most internationally renowned Nordic artist. Since the late 1970s, his exhibitions have been hosted in numerous museums. The most recent retrospective of his 25 years of artistic work was organized by the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark during the summer of 1990. Afterward, it was presented at Moderna Museet in Stockholm and the new Museum of Contemporary Art (Museet for Samtidskunst) in Oslo. This exhibition, supported by the Nordic Cultural Fund, concludes its tour at the Pori Art Museum from March to May 1991.
The exhibition includes paintings, drawings, and bronze sculptures created between 1964 and 1990.
Publication:
ISBN 951-9355-32-4 Per Kirkeby: Maalauksia, veistoksia, piirustuksia, kirjoja, elokuvia 1964-1990
Pori Art Museum 24.3.-12.5.1991
Editors: Marketta Seppälä, Jari-Pekka Vanhala
Translations: Maaretta Jaukkuri, Kari Vähäpassi
Graphic Design: Jari-Pekka Vanhala, Hilkka Kuusijärvi (Based on catalogue made for Moderna Museet, Stockholm, by Anders Ljungman and Mako Fukuda)
© Artists, writers, photographers
Printing house: Bohusläningens Boktryckeri AB, Uddevalla 1991
Pori Art Museum Publications 15
Translated with ChatGPT