To u r i s m , C u lt u r e
and
Business
I s su e 47 • 2022
Art at the
REYKJAVÍK ART MUSEUM
In Kjarvalsstaðir, the Reykjavík Art Museum is now showing the exhibition ‘Heads from Clouds — The Portraits of Jóhannes S. Kjarval’. The painter Kjarval is one of the nation’s greatest and most beloved artists. His paintings and his interpretation of Iceland’s nature have shaped our view of nature, and he takes a major place in the cultural and art history of Iceland.
Jóhannes Kjarval self-portrait
K
jarval began his career as a painter by making portraits of four CEOs of Landsbanki Íslands. ‘Drawings of Icelandic People’ from 1926 to 1930, however, were a watershed in his career. He won the minds and hearts of the people, and some of these pictures were purchased, his first for the National Art Museum. Throughout his career, he was sketching, drawing and painting portraits, and over time they become a kind of extension of his view of the natural world. Finally, the Nobel Prize-winning writer, Halldór Kiljan Laxness, in his first art commentary in 1927, says about Kjarval’s portraits of people from the previous year, “The working methods in the portraits ... certify the understanding of a highly educated artist of Icelandic nature”. At this retrospective, ‘Heads from Clouds’, the first to be dedicated only to Kjarval’s portraits of people, one of the main characteristics of Kjarval’s portraits is that they are about people rather than the images. The curator of the exhibition is Aðalsteinn Ingólfsson. The exhibition is open until 18th September.
Kjarval. The Sisters from Stapi, 1948
Two Masters, Kjarval s painting of Erró. Both artists have exhibitions at Reykjavík Art Museum. Portrait of Erró, 1948.
Kjarval. Retrato de Jón Kaldal, 1917-20
