Summer Exhibition - From the Collection

This summer the Reykjavik Art Museum presents a selection of works from the museum’s collection at Kjarvalsstaðir. The exhibition gives an overview of the collection and presents works by Icelandic artists since the turn of the 20th century. Rather than concentrating on an art historical theme, the selection of works aims at the creation of a unified aesthetic whole to which each work contributes.

Paintings by many of the most prominent painters of Iceland are included, as well as work in other media. The exhibition shows the diverse styles and approaches of Icelandic artists and many of their common subject matters are represented, as they have changed and developed in the course of time. Thus genre paintings by the earlier artists present underlying themes and responses to the realities of life that are found also, in new forms, in the work of later generations of artists. Exploration of tension between restrictions and freedom, tradition and innovation, private and public, evolves from descriptive imagery to provocative conceptual approaches.

Most significantly, the exhibition offers an opportunity to see many of the beautiful gems of Icelandic art of the last 100 years, brought together in one place for the viewer’s aesthetic experience.