Per Kirkeby Retrospective
Friday 26 June 2009 at 9 am
Tate Modern
There we were met by Josh who was to be our guide for a private viewing of the works of Per Kirkeby being exhibited at one of the many galleries within Tate Modern. What few reviews there were of the exhibition were rather mixed so we had somewhat open minds as to what we were to see in a surprisingly large exhibition extended over 10 rooms.
Every picture in the first room featured a hut in some shape or form while the next room contained what would be best described as 'pop art', more particularly American pop art, incorporating cuttings from journals and magazines. Josh informed us that Kirkeby subscribed to an experimental School of Art known as Fluxus. Kirkeby was a keen historian of art and had written several books devoted to particular artists. Many of these books were on display in this room including one particular book on Abildgaard which had been translated from Danish into English by Reginald Spink, the father of Alan who was in our party.
We moved on to rooms such as the one featuring paintings almost exclusively on masonite, a medium that has the appearance of school blackboards. Before moving into the room featuring Kirkeby's very large works, we passed down a corridor the walls of which were hung with watercolour sketches made in Greenland and South America. At last there some recognisable features in rather more natural colours. Finally we came to the very large paintings which Kirkeby would have worked on with the painting placed on the floor, of which 'The siege of Constantinople' and 'Flight into Egypt' are probably the best known.
Josh quoted some of Kirkeby's utterances on his art, for example paintings were to be 'looked at', no explanation would be provided. This point was emphasised by the fact that many of the paintings bore the description 'Untitled' leaving one free to apply one's own interpretation. Certainly there was a lack of figuration in most of the paintings although, on closer inspection, there were sometimes figurative glimpses.
The fact that other Danish societies had already arranged their own private viewings of the exhibition, and Per Kirkeby not being everybody's 'cup of tea', probably accounted for the limited support for this event from the Anglo-Danish Society, but we appreciated the freedom to wander around the exhibition at will and Josh welcomed the fact that he didn't have to raise his voice to make himself heard.
Graham Hughes
