On Per Kirkeby

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This collection of essays celebrates the seventieth birthday of Danish artist Per Kirkeby, who is renowned for his work as a painter, sculptor, author, filmmaker, and architect. Siegfried Gohr, a former museum director and current professor at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf, has studied Kirkeby’s diverse body of work for over thirty years. Their acquaintance began in the seventies, leading to a retrospective of Kirkeby’s art at Cologne’s Ludwig Museum in 1987. This volume features eleven of Gohr’s insightful texts that explore Kirkeby’s contributions to painting, sculpture, and architecture. Kirkeby, born in Copenhagen in 1938, graduated with a Ph.D. in geology from the University of Copenhagen between 1957 and 1964. He began his artistic career in the early 1960s, initially focusing on prints and performance art. His first brick sculptures emerged in 1973, followed by his initial oil paintings in 1974. He held professorships in Karlsruhe and at the Städelschule in Frankfurt, showcasing his work in numerous solo exhibitions globally. Kirkeby has also participated multiple times in the Venice Biennial and in documentas 7 and 9, solidifying his status in the contemporary art scene.