[no title] 1995

Editor: This print by Per Kirkeby features an intricate network of lines. I’m immediately drawn to the way the composition seems to both reveal and conceal a landscape. What strikes you about the formal elements? Curator: The insistent verticality of the lines creates a clear structural framework. Note how the artist uses hatching and cross-hatching to build tonal depth, yet avoids creating a fully realized pictorial space. Do you see how that tension functions? Editor: Yes, it's like the suggestion of a landscape is constantly being broken down by the abstract qualities of the lines themselves. Curator: Precisely. Kirkeby compels us to confront the materiality of the print, its lines, its composition. The semiotic function is deliberately destabilized, prompting contemplation on the artwork itself. Editor: That’s a helpful way to think about it. I’ll definitely look at prints differently now. Curator: Indeed, a rewarding exercise in understanding visual grammar.