PER KIRKEBY

Provenance:
- Galerie Michael Werner.
- Acquired from Galerie Lelong, Zurich, by the present owner in 1990 (with the label on the reverse).
- Since then privately owned Switzerland.

Exhibition: Zurich 1991, Per Kirkeby. Ohne Titel, Galerie Lelong, April-May 1991.

Per Kirkeby is a Danish painter, sculptor, film maker and poet and is considered one of the most important contemporary artists in Scandinavia. Born in 1938 in Copenhagen, a trained geologist, in 1962 he began his studies at the Experimental Art School in Copenhagen, which he completed in 1964. His first important solo show abroad took place in 1977 at the Museum Folkwang in Essen. His works were later shown throughout Europe and the US.

As an artist, Kirkeby is very open to experimentation and works in various media and techniques. When he started out he was a member of the Fluxus group, in the 1960s he was influenced by Pop Art and later by Tachisme and Art Informel. These different influences are revealed in the changes of style in his art. By the 1970s he had left behind the eye-catching stylistic devices of Pop Art, and turned increasingly from representational art towards abstraction. The power and flow of his brushwork led to a sensual modelling and a dramatic, poetic character in his works. These are not spontaneous and emotional gestures however, but in fact controlled and well-considered compositions and forms of expression.