Nina Tryggvadottir: A Retrospective

November 6 - December 6, 2014 Monday - Saturday, 10:00am - 5:30pm reception: Thursday, November 6, 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm

(Cover) Abstraction NT-OCP-63/09, 1963 Oil on canvaspaper mounted on linen, 26 1/2 x 42 inches

NT-OB-42/02)

NINA trYggvADóttIr As both of my parents were painters, I was born into the art world. For me the life of visiting museums, galleries, and gallery openings was just the way people lived. If we went to a friend’s house for dinner, the first stop was to visit their studio to see their most recent works.

(1913-1968)

prehended just how unusual and remarkable my parents were. When my father, Alcopley, died in 1992 I became the caretaker of the artistic works of both my parents. It was through the cataloging, archiving, and organizing of Nina’s artworks that I have truly come to know my mother.

Starting from Nina’s accomplished schoolgirl drawings and paintings in Iceland and on to her academic studies at the prestigious royal Academy of Art in Copenhagen, I could already see the seeds of what would become her mature style as she moved away from strict rendering and began to see the world in a reductive way. Nína studied Ásgrímur Jónsson, one of the pioneers of Icelandic art, and later studied in the private art school conducted by painters Finnur Jónsson and Jóhann Briem. At the royal Academy of Art in Copenhagen, she studied under the venerable Danish painter Kræsten Iversen for four years.

My mother, Nina tryggvadóttir, is considered to be one of Iceland's most important Abstract Expressionist artists and, exceptionally, was one of very few internationally noted female artists of her generation.

In 1968, when my mother died at the age of 55, I had just turned 17. She and I had not had the opportunity to speak as one adult to another, and I was left with many questions about her life, her thoughts, her ideas, and her inspirations. At the time I do not think I really com-

Nina moved to Paris in 1938. At the time Paris was the premier destination of choice for many young artists. there, she absorbed the influences of Picasso, Cézanne, and other Cubist artists.

In 1943, Nina moved to New York City, the burgeoning center of the art world. She studied with the influential artist Fernand Léger and took classes with both noted painter Hans Hofmann and filmmaking with the avantgarde filmmaker Hans richter. Working through these multiple influences, Nína was able to form and develop her own unique vision of the modernist approach of flattening of the picture plane. this would lead to her

pure abstractions of the 1950s and 1960s.

Expressionists. that same year, he and eleven other artists founded The Club, a forum for discussions as well as an informal meeting place for artists, which met every Friday in an 8th Street loft. The Club became a major driving force in New York for artistic debate and exploration. While Nina fit right in and was considered to be "one of the boys," her painting technique bypassed the Surrealist and Primitivist effects of some of her colleagues and instead focused on a style of concise, highly textured, almost sculpted planes and warm colors.

By 1945 Nina caught the attention of the New York art scene with her first solo exhibition at the New Art Circle gallery on 57th Street. J. B. Neumann, the gallery’s legendary owner, regularly organized exhibitions of artists such as Wassily Kandinsky, Max Beckmann, Marc Chagall, Juan gris, Paul Klee, Ilya Bolotowsky, Steve Wheeler, and Chaim Soutine. Nina’s first exhibition was of her figures and landscapes, which had developed into strong blocks of color held together by representational motifs. At the time, Nina was working to break free of representational painting and had already begun creating pure abstractions in her studio. these new abstract works would be shown in a second solo exhibition at the New Art Circle which proved to be an even bigger success. Elaine de Kooning, who was making a name for herself as an art critic at the time, gave the show a highly favorable review in Art News [Art News, 4, 1948].

Later that year, Nina became an unjustified and unsubstantiated target of Senator Joseph McCarthy's anti-communist witch-hunt. My mother was forced to leave the United States. My father joined her in Paris in 1952, surrendering the opportunities that were developing for their careers in the New York art scene. For the next decade, due to circumstances not of their making, my parents were obliged to live in Europe.

In 1949, Nina married my father, Alcopley, a prominent member of the Abstract

Despite the setbacks, Nina and Alcopley characteristically threw themselves into their

phenomena and away from man-made structures.

In 1959 – without admitting fault – the United States government allowed Nina to return to New York. Upon her return, Nína's work quickly moved away from the solid forms of her previous years and exploded into expressive painterly surfaces – her strong brushwork now relating more to bursts of energy rather than to solid structures. Nina's paintings became less dense and more atmospheric. the New York art world had changed during Nina's ten-year absence, and Pop, Op, and Happenings were now in vogue. Despite these transitions in the world of art, Nina continued showing both in New York and Europe.

NT-OM-39/06) work and quickly became a part of the Paris and London art scenes, exhibiting at some of the premier galleries and museums throughout Europe. Just as they had in New York, they made their way into the center of the pulse of what was happening in Europe.

At this point in time, Nina's abstractions became informed by both the catastrophic destruction and the valiant efforts to rebuild in post-war Europe. She created a series of "de-construction" and "construction" paintings that feature bold vertical and horizontal lines – suggestive of half-destroyed buildings and new ones in the process of creation. In the mid- to late-1950s, Nina's work became less geometric and more organic – moving toward shapes and forms more reminiscent of natural

During what turned out to be the last six years of her life, Nina received numerous important commissions for murals and stained glass windows in Iceland and elsewhere in Europe, which she accomplished to great acclaim.

When she fell ill and tragically died in New York in 1968, Nina left behind a remarkable output of work that includes paintings, works on paper including collage, abstract stained glass windows, mosaic murals, stage and set designs, over two hundred textile designs, portraits of well-known people of her time, and even a few children's books. As her daughter, I am extremely proud of my mother’s international reputation and enduring legacy. Almost fifty years after her death, her works continue to inspire a new generation of artists and collectors.

Una Dora Copley 2014, New York City

New Mexico (NT-OP-43/02), 1943, Santa Fe Oil on paper, 21 x 18 inches

Abstraction (NT-OCB-59-01), 1959, London Oil on canvasboard, 17 7/8 x 23 15/16 inches

Abstraction (NT-OL-60/09), 1960, New York Oil on linen, 65 x 52 inches

CHECKLIST Self Portrait (NT-OL-39/10), 1939, Copenhagen Oil on linen 24 x 21 inches

Abstraction (NT-1289), 1955, Paris Oil on masonite 23 3/4 x 38 1/4 inches

Sisters (NT-OM-39/06), 1939, Copenhagen Oil on panel 27 x 23 inches

Abstraction (NT-997), 1956, Paris Oil on board 16 x 13 inches

Reykjavik Cityscape (NT-OB-42/02), 1942, Reykjavik Oil on linen mounted on board 18 1/2 x 18 1/2 inches

Abstraction (1284), 1958, London Oil on linen 46 x 33 1/2 inches

New Mexico (NT-OP-43/02), 1943, Santa Fe Oil on paper 21 x 18 inches

Abstraction (NT-OCB-59/01), 1959, London Oil on canvasboard 17 7/8 x 23 15/16 inches

Abstraction (NT-OM-44/08), 1944, New York Oil on masonite 13 x 11 inches

Abstraction (NT-OL-60/09), 1960, New York Oil on linen 65 x 52 inches

Odalisque with Cat (NT-OL-44/02), 1944, New York Oil on linen mounted on board 18 1/2 x 18 1/2 inches

Still Life with Lemons (NT-OCB-60/05), 1960, Reykjavik Oil on panel 13 3/4 x 17 3/4 inches

Deconstruction Piece (NT-CP- 50/20), 1950, Reykjavik Collage and ink on paper 22 3/4 x 17 1/4 inches

Abstraction (NT-OL-62/02), 1962, New York Oil on linen 18 x 23 15/16 inches

Abstraction (NT-691), 1952, Paris Enamel on board 31 3/8 x 271/2 inches

Abstraction (NT-OCP-63/09), 1963, New York Oil on canvaspaper mounted on linen 26 1/2 x 42 inches

Abstraction (NT-CP-52/15), 1952, Paris Collage and ink on paper 25 1/5 x 21 3/4 inches

Abstraction (NT-OCB-64/03), 1964, New York Oil on canvasboard 18 x 23 15/16 inches

Abstraction (NT-EM-52/01), 1952, Paris Enamel on masonite 34 1/8 x 48 1/2 inches

Abstraction (NT-OCB-64/04), 1964, New York Oil on panel 24 x 18 inches

Abstraction (NT-EM-52/03), 1952, Paris Oil and enamel on masonite 42 1/8 x 47 3/16 inches

Abstraction (NT-OCB-66/16), 1966, New York Oil on panel 20 x 16 inches

Abstraction (NT-EM-52/14), 1952, Paris Enamel on masonite 17 7/8 x 21 5/8 inches

Still Life (NT-OCB-66/08), 1966, Reykjavik Oil on panel 18 x 24 inches

Still Life (NT-OCB-66/08), 1966, Reykjavik Oil on panel, 18 x 24 inches

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