Per Kirkeby is a close observer and expects exactly the same calm observation and devotion to the visual impression from recipients of his work. Kirkeby, who died in his home town Copenhagen in 2018, is considered the most internationally renowned Danish artist of his generation and one of the most important European post-war artists. "I understand my paintings as a summation of structures. A sedimentation of gauzy layers. [..] In principle, an endless sedimentation. But it is striking that the underlying structure always breaks through, even if a new layer has a completely different motif and color." (Quoted from: Per Kirkeby, ex. cat. Tate Modern, London et al., 2009/10, p. 10) Kirkeby's pictorial structure creates a fascinating depth effect through precisely those layers. Kirkeby's rapturous creations, among them the present composition borne by a luminous yellow, reveal the scientific background of their creator. Before Kirkeby made the decision to become a painter, he studied geology. In Kirkeby's works, inspirations from nature and atmospherically condensed landscape impressions play a fundamental role. The motifs inspired by nature - water, trees, mountains, stones and caves, as well as architectural forms and fragmented body parts - do not result in a homogeneous, perspective landscape or figure painting. They are rather laid out according to the principle of ‘all-over painting’, in which various formal ideas and sensory impressions are juxtaposed on the image area like on a kind of notepad. Kirkeby followed the unpredictable song of his intuition, which allows the composition to grow and emerge like a thought. Kirkeby's impressive painterly œuvre is now part of important international collections, such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Tate Modern, London, the Centre Pompidou, Paris, the Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, and the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich. [JS]