This retrospective exhibition presents
key-works from the creative oeuvre of Kjarval (his full name was Jóhannes
Sveinsson Kjarval), who was one of the pioneers of Icelandic visual art. During
his long career as a painter, from 1918, when he completed his art studies,
until the 1960s, his essential philosophy remained the same - that nature is
alive. Kjarval developed his own view of nature, which was expressed so
powerfully in his art. The aspects of nature he chose as his subjects were
mountains, lava fields, and the moss that typically grows in the lava. In the
familiar, the modest, Kjarval discerned a glorious complexity and beauty: the
expanses of lava glow in the light; stones speak; and mysterious life comes
into being. In 1973, the City of Reykjavík opened a museum dedicated to
Kjarval's art, entitled Karvalsstadir, which lent many of the works in the
exhibition.
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