PER KIRKEBY

Painter - Scientist - Sculptor - Poet

March 16th - May 28th, 2012

 

Special opening hours during bank holidays: May 17th (Ascension) and May 27th/28th (Whitsun) from 11 am - 6 pm.

 

Renowned primarily as a painter, the Danish artist Per Kirkeby (born in 1938) has created a highly diverse oeuvre ranging from collages, films, monotypes, posters, murals to volumes of short stories and poetry. The MKM is now showcasing this highly-productive, albeit less well-known, side of the artist in its major spring exhibition, which reveals Per Kirkeby as a man with many creative guises: artist, scientist, poet. Kirkeby's paintings are also on show, of course, in a second section of the exhibition.

 

Holding a Ph.D. in geology, Kirkeby's starting point is the observation of forms in Nature, which - analogous to the stratification of geological sediment - he translates into artistic structures. How can an observation be captured? How can art transcend the boundaries of our perception? As Kirkeby himself explains "The world is material from which one can fashion art by applying an artistic process... a process which at its very core cannot be controlled." His works can now be found in many of the world's leading collections, such as the Tate Gallery, the Metropolitan Museum and the Centre Pompidou. The MKM's Ströher Collection also features works of the Dane, who has lived in Germany for many years and taught at the Kunstakademie Karlsruhe (1978-89) and at the Frankfurt Städelschule (1989-2000).

We're happy to announce the cooperation between the MKM and BOZAR in Brussels where Per Kirkeby is currently also on show:

Visitors who have seen the Kirkeby exhibition at the MKM and present their ticket at the BOZAR will get 50% off the entrance fee for the Kirkeby show. Certainly this also works the other way round. This offer is valid in both museums for the duration of the respective Kirkeby exhibitions.