Per Kirkeby

A Danish artist of international reputation, Kirkeby asserted his originality in the 1980s with a form of abstract art anchored in landscape imagery. His expressionist style relates to the art of other Northern European artists of his generation such as Georg Baselitz and Anselm Kiefer. From his training as a geologist and his scientific expeditions to Greenland, Kirkeby has kept a strong attachment to the Nordic landscape. Forest and trees are among his favorite subjects. The present drawing may have been inspired by birches' trunks. The swift strokes, mixed media, and ornamental quality of the play of lines are characteristic of Kirkeby's works on paper, which are typically lighter in feeling than his paintings on canvas.