With this exhibition, Per Kirkeby (1938–2018) is, for the first time, given a central place at Kunsten – in a special exhibition spanning six decades of his artistic career. Here you can experience everything from the monumental paintings to the small, intense bronzes created by the international star with strong ties to North Jutland.
The exhibition embraces Kirkeby’s entire career – from the early works, through sculptures and drawings, to the large canvases. It is a body of work that, to a rare degree, harmonizes with Alvar Aalto’s beautiful architecture.
In the exhibition, you encounter works that move from the pop-inspired and urban to nature’s deep geological time – and to the unique poetry that binds art and nature together; fleeting and sensuous. At a time when nature is under pressure and the pace of life is accelerating, Kirkeby’s art, so to speak, anchors us to the chalk layers beneath our feet and reminds us of the stories carried by the landscapes.
Per Kirkeby’s life and work are closely connected to North Jutland. This is evident in Aars, where his works shape the city’s public spaces, and on Læsø, where he found inspiration from the late 1970s and throughout much of his life.
With the exhibition at Kunsten, Aalborg is for the first time presented with a comprehensive showcase of one of the most internationally acclaimed Danish artists of recent times – thus completing the circle for Kirkeby in North Jutland.
In 2024, Kunsten invited Poul Erik Tøjner from Louisiana to curate this major North Jutland presentation of Per Kirkeby. The exhibition is built on works from Louisiana’s significant Kirkeby collection, which is one of the largest in the world.
Kirkeby’s works possess a distinctive sensitivity to nature, which helped make him an international figure in Danish art history. His art remains relevant because nature – which he translated so effortlessly into images, sculptures, and spaces – is still central to how we understand the world today.
In Kirkeby’s work, the human-made occupies only a small part; it is nature and geology’s slow cuts through the landscape that carry the weight. When the human-made does appear, it is often to evoke nature and the landscapes that his brick sculptures and bronzes have the ability to summon across Europe – from Læsø to Humlebæk and down to the Alps.
“A splendid and generous exhibition that so beautifully showcases a museum’s finest purpose: mediation, storytelling, and sensory experience.”
“The exhibition struck me in my core.”
“Enchanting, almost magnificent works that both tell of Kirkeby as a diligent user of art history and bear witness to his reflections on existence.”
Per Kirkeby was trained as a geologist, a former student at Eks-skolen in Copenhagen, and a professor at the art academies in Karlsruhe and Frankfurt am Main from 1978 to 2000.
He is one of Denmark’s greatest contemporary artists, with exhibitions at some of the world’s most significant institutions, including Tate Modern, Kunsthalle zu Kiel, Guggenheim Bilbao, Museum Ludwig, IVAM, and the Van Abbemuseum.
His oeuvre encompasses a rich production of paintings, sculptures, films, graphic works, and literary pieces, often reflecting the artist’s interest in natural history and architecture.
A number of the exhibition’s works are on loan from the collection of the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. The exhibition is the result of a long-term collaboration between Kunsten and Louisiana, which since 2020 has explored the possibilities for national museum partnerships through collection exchanges and joint projects – with the aim of creating a broader platform for art experiences in Denmark.
