I first came across Per Kirkeby through the Danish Film Institute. At that time, he was involved in film work himself (he sat on the board, and we had a spectacular falling-out). Much later, and perhaps more to the point, our paths crossed again through my producer Vibeke Windeløv, his wife at the time, who has always had a certain knack for forging connections. Vibeke looked after Per’s finances. Once, she asked a German gallerist how one makes a great deal of money. The answer was brief: ‘One must spend a great deal of money.’ She carried that principle straight over into our collaboration, and I have benefited from that to some extent.

When people ask me what I think of Per’s art, my answer is: I learnt to like it over time. Not that I’ve got anything against abstract painting, but my way into art has always been somewhere else. Still, it has always been obvious to me that his works carry a weight, a quality you just can’t ignore. This is emphatically manifest in Weltuntergang, which could barely fit into the gallery here.