Per Kirkeby's Tate Modern Exhibition Reveals Danish Artist's Geological and Artistic Evolution
This month, Tate Modern is hosting an exhibition featuring Danish artist Per Kirkeby. At the age of seventy, he creates art in a villa located in Copenhagen, on Læsø, and in Italy. Originally trained as an arctic geologist, he still undertakes field trips to Greenland. His artistic career took off in the 1960s after he graduated with a geology degree and became part of Copenhagen's Eks-Skolen. In 1966, he collaborated with Joseph Beuys, whose profound impact also affected his friend Poul Gernes. Kirkeby’s creations include blackboards for sketching, developed from Masonite squares. The exhibition will highlight both early Masonite works and his black MDF pieces. He identifies as an intuitive painter, focusing on the theme of 'collapse' in his art. Michael Werner represents Kirkeby, who shares connections with Peter Doig.
Key facts
- Per Kirkeby has an exhibition at Tate Modern this month featuring paintings and smaller sculptures
- Kirkeby is 70 years old and considered the grand old man of Danish art
- He was trained as an arctic geologist and still goes on field trips to Greenland
- Kirkeby had a dangerous encounter with a polar bear, which his assistant killed by shooting it in the left eye
- In the early 1960s, he joined Copenhagen's Eks-Skolen, an avant-garde group around Poul Gernes
- Joseph Beuys visited Eks-Skolen in 1966, and Kirkeby performed with him, but Beuys had a 'fatal' influence on Gernes
- Kirkeby's work includes black MDF panels with chalk graffiti, used for doodling and self-teaching
- He describes himself as an intuitive painter, with 'collapse' as a key concept in his art
Entities
Artists
- Per Kirkeby
- Delacroix
- Picasso
- Poul Gernes
- Joseph Beuys
- Hans Baldung Grien
- Rossetti
- Burne-Jones
- Georg Baselitz
- Sigmar Polke
- Barnett Newman
- Peter Doig
Institutions
- Tate Modern
- Eks-Skolen
- Michael Werner
Locations
- Copenhagen
- Denmark
- Greenland
- Narssak
- Læsø
- Italy
- London