Per Kirkeby (1938 - 2018) is one of Scandinavia's most important artists. A geologist by training, Kirkeby was a student at the Experimental Art School (Ex-School) in Copenhagen and a professor at the art academies in Karlsruhe and Frankfurt am Main between 1978 and 2000. His oeuvre encompasses a rich production of paintings, sculptures, films, graphic and literary works, often reflecting the artist's interest in natural history and architecture.

Since 1975, Kirkeby has continuously donated a copy of all his etchings, woodcuts and linocuts, as well as associated test and condition prints, to the Museum Jorn, which is now the permanent home and research centre for the artist's entire graphic output. In addition to more than 2.000 (two-thousand) prints and hundreds of drawings,
the museum's collection includes some of
Kirkeby's most famous paintings, particularly
from his early period.

During the last years of his life, Kirkeby also donated his entire archive to Museum Jorn. The material, which includes photographs, films, manuscripts, letters, sketchbooks, drawings, diaries, gypsy models, a geological collection and much more, provides a unique and revealing insight into Kirkeby's artistic processes and aesthetic thinking.

In collaboration with the Kirkeby Archive at Museum Jorn, a variety of exhibitions can be conceived. Whether focusing on his geological or scientific interpretation of the world, or rooted in his neo-Romantic approach to art in general, a Per Kirkeby exhibition always reveals the relativity of the known.