Per Kirkeby. Building and Painting
This exhi­bi­tion sets out from the Stiftung Insel Hombroich’s singular situation: six walk-in brick sculp­tures which Per Kirkeby († 2018) created speci­fi­cally for the site between 2002 and 2009. The presen­ta­tion focuses on the connec­tion between archi­tec­ture and nature in the œuvre of the Danish painter and sculptor. The Drei Kapellen (Three Chapels), like his other projects for the Kultur­raum Hombroich and his designs that were carried out here (Bus Stop, Feld-Haus and Kahmen Coll­ec­tion) and those not realised (Train Station, Archive Building and Lodge) define him as a perso­na­lity who has left an enduring mark on Stiftung Insel Hombroich.
The exhi­bi­tion Per Kirkeby. Building and Painting presents paintings, bronzes and maquettes from a period spanning all of five decades. The interplay of the sets of work on view directs the eye to the multi-faceted rela­ti­onships between archi­tec­ture, sculpture and painting, and between space, light and shade. Motifs emerging in the works, such as the cave, the house, the tree, also call to mind how archi­tec­ture relates to the surroun­ding landscape – again a feature that closer contem­pla­tion soon reveals as of the artist’s own design. The Drei Kapellen, further­more, arti­cu­late a very special connec­tion to Kirkeby’s studio on the island of Læsø in that they take up the archi­tec­ture of his work spaces in modular form.

Curated by Frank Boehm und Anna Czer­litzki.