A visionary ode to the seasons, Mild Vinter II is a sumptuous large-scale work dating from the height of Per Kirkeby’s practice. With its rich, tactile surface and glowing verdant palette, it conjures the flourishing of nature in the face of winter, its green painterly arabesques unfurling like new roots. Part of a suite of five variations on this theme, the work was painted in 1989, marking the end of a decade that had witnessed an international revival of painting. During this period, Kirkeby took his place at the forefront of a new generation of Neo-Expressionists, channelling the gesturalism of Abstract Expressionism, the colours of Pop Art and the spirit of Northern European Romanticism into a visceral celebration of his native Danish landscape. Originally a student of geology, Kirkeby was fascinated by natural processes and formations, and sought to capture their rhythms in paint. Indeed, the present work confronts the viewer like a cross-section of the earth, tracing layers of sediment and foliage that hover in abstract strata. The result is one of near-cinematic drama, where reality and illusion – and, indeed, winter and spring – are held in a tantalising state of flux.