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Per Kirkeby (one of Peter Martins's designers of choice)


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A retrospective show of Per Kirkeby's art has opened at the Tate Modern.

The review in the Times Literary Supplement (not available on line) uses terms like "powerful," "struggle," "enormous," and "assaults the eye with its colour and organizational ambition." Of one painting, the reviewer writes:

'Portugalia' (2008) ... is named for a sad story by Selma Lagerlof about a father's misinterpretation of his daughter's absence, yet no paining of Kirekby's is more uplifting. Early on, Kireby saw that the harshness of the conditions of existence, seen most uncmoppromisingly in Arctic terrain, must lead us to intensify rather than deny our capacity for happiness and exultation. At the age of 71, he continues to serve this insight.

The accompanying photo shows Kirkeby leaning against a sculpture/construction -- NOT "Portugallia," I hasten to say -- which looks rather like one of two long slabs of red brick wall.

Here are a few reviews, each with an illustration of a major painting. The Guardian's is accmopanied by a colorful and rather romantic abstract painting that might surprise those who only know his work for NY City Ballet:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/200...eby-tate-modern

From Time Out:

http://www.timeout.com/london/art/event/147488/per-kirkeby

A brief piece (not a review) from ArtObserved:

http://artobserved.com/go-see-london-per-k...ember-6th-2009/

It almost makes me want to revisit my video of NYCB's Romeo and Juliet, with Kirkeby's sets and designs.

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Thanks for posting this Bart.

Kirkeby is an internationally known and admired painter and has been for many decades--though, as best I could tell, many ballet goers in New York did not seem aware of him when Martins invited him to design his Swan Lake. In fact, I had not heard of him before the Martins' Swan Lake, and no surprise there since I don't follow contemporay art much. (One person I know who does had heard of him.) So, I think that in choosing to work with Kirkeby, Martins was participating in the kind of artistic collaboration that has the potential to make ballet more exciting. Of course such collaborations don't always succeed.

I haven't seen the Romeo and Juliet which seems disliked (a lot) by everyone who posts here. I can never quite make up my mind how I feel about the sets and costumes of the Martins Swan Lake: I do think the severe ballroom of Act III exactly matches Martins' vision of the ballet; I'm not sure that vision entirely coheres with Tchaikovsky, but Martins' and Kirkeby's grim version of romantic melancholy sort of works for me. I think I like the abstracted lake scene and even find a certain poetry in it, but it can feel rather distancing especially in relation to the narrative quality of the music, and my eye has never adapted to the clashing colors of Act I, (and Martins' reduction of the class distinctions of Act I to a single group of dancers doesn't work for me at all).

Out of curiousity I went to an small exhibition of Kirkeby's paintings in a gallery in New York around the same time as the Swan Lake and they offered a vision of abstracted natural beauty like that of his Act II of Swan Lake. If I were in London (if only) then I would certainly try to go to the Tate exhibit.

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Thank you for posting, Drew. I haven't seen the R&J either but I agree with you overall regarding the designs for Swan Lake, although I like the lake scene a little better. (Act I is irredeemable.)

So, I think that in choosing to work with Kirkeby, Martins was participating in the kind of artistic collaboration that has the potential to make ballet more exciting. Of course such collaborations don't always succeed.

Agreed. It was a risky choice, and risk comes with....risks. But they need to be taken sometimes.

Thanks for starting the topic, bart.

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