AARHUS.- Per Kirkeby is one of the artists best represented in the ARoS collection. His work is now being shown in its full range – from the Pop Art pictures of the 1960s, watercolours from Greenland and monotypes to the later large-scale paintings. Per Kirkeby is an artist in great demand, and requests for his works for major exhibitions come in from all over the world. In recent years alone, ARoS has loaned major works by Per Kirkeby to exhibitions in Athens, Brussels, Duisburg and Washington in addition to various exhibitions here in Denmark, most recently one in Ordrupgaard. So we feel that guests to the museum should be given the chance to see an exhibition of major works from our own Per Kirkeby collection.

EXHIBITION IN FIVE GALLERIES
The exhibition is built up around five galleries, each focusing on various aspects of the manner in which Per Kirkeby expresses himself. The first gallery is devoted to the early Pop Art works from the 1960s, characterised by the use of silhouette figures, the intervening fence motif, the house and the cave; the dimensions of these works were most frequently 122 x 122 cm. This gallery also presents two recent additions to the collection. Per Kirkeby has experimented a great deal in his work, and in a side gallery there is an exhibition of drawings, daubs, collages and painted cuttings from weekly magazines. The next gallery is dominated by the great monotypes from 1991, which are unique works produced by means of a special printing technique and treatment. Kirkeby, who was originally trained as a geologist, has taken part in several expeditions to Greenland, something that has left its mark on his art. His Greenland motifs are exhibited in a special gallery. The fifth gallery is the large one in which Per Kirkeby’s intense, powerful paintings such as Nach der Abnahme and Cossus Ligniperda are presented.

With thousands of square metres spanning ten levels the museum has ample space to showcase its extensive collection of 1100 paintings, 400 sculptures and installations, 200 art videos and over 7,000 drawings, photos and graphics: a collection that ahead of the inauguration was enhanced by the addition of works by international artists such as Bill Viola, Tony Oursler, Carsten Höller, Miwa Yanagi and James Turrell. In large measure, a donation of DKK 40m by New Carlsberg Foundation over a ten-year period enabled the purchase of these works.

The art museum contains three large galleries of just under 1,100 square metres each for permanent exhibitions allowing visitors the opportunity to view a broad spectrum of works from the museum’s own collection. In addition, recent acquisitions of international light and video works are displayed in the basement level of the museum in a special exhibition gallery called 'The 9 Spaces.'

Lastly, the museum has two further galleries at its disposal: the dedicated special exhibitions gallery commanding 1,100 square metres and the West Gallery with 350 square metres.