Per Kirkeby’s Untitled (Frankfurt), is a characteristic example of the artist’s brooding oil paintings that strike a balance between landscape and abstraction. Like many of Kirkeby’s works throughout the 1980s, this later example presents a rich display of earthy tones rendered with a broad gestural application. Across his polymathic output, Kirkeby recalled many sources of inspiration including the avant-garde conceptualism of the Fluxus movement as well as his nostalgia for Danish landscapes. However, the artist’s grounding stimulus was geology, which he studied at university. Kirkeby often remarked on the importance of structure to his practice, drawing parallels between the rigid make up of topography and visual compositions. Indeed, as with Untitled (Frankfurt), Kirkeby’s tendency to place structure at the forefront of his practice allows his work to remain composed despite its inverted presentation.
Per Kirkeby turned his hand to many disciplines and mediums throughout his 50-year career, including sculpture, architecture, film, and poetry. While he embraced Danish conceptualism under the tutelage of Poul Gernes, Kirkeby’s adoption of an instinctively emotional approach to painting aligned him more so with pioneers of neo-expressionism such as Georg Baselitz and A.R. Penck.
