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Journey - Paintings by Gunnar S. Magnússon |
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sunnudagur, 07 mars 2010 |
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Paintings by GUNNAR S. MAGNÚSSON, GSM.
Hallgrímskirkja, Reykjavík, Iceland.
Opening on Sunday the 28th of February at 12 o'clock.
 LANDSÝN
The young boy playing by the ever-changing sea is bathed in a clear light and surrounded by the stillness of mountains that have endured for eons.
There is also a calm air about the man who contemplates his final journey.
Curator: Guðrún Kristjánsdóttir
Journey
Gunnar S. Magnússon was born in Reykjavík in 1930. He studied art there in the 1940s before travelling to Oslo where he studied at the Art Academy for three years, graduating in 1952, under the instruction of Jean Heiberg who was himself a former student of Henri Matisse. Later he travelled to France, Italy and Spain where he continued his studies and worked on his art.
Gunnar had his first private exhibition in Reykjavík in 1949. Since then he has exhibited around Iceland and taken part in several collective exhibitions. In the 1950s he also participated in the founding of an exhibition hall in Reykjavík, one of the few venues available to artists at the time. His works are found in several museum collections in Iceland, including the National Gallery, the Reykjavík Art Museum, the ASÍ Art Museum, and the LA Art Museum.
Gunnar‘s career spans both figurative and abstract art. His portraits have become well known, as have the paintings and drawings of his early years, and his more recent photographic work. He has also exhibited abstract works on several occasions.
Gunnar’s paintings in the exhibition in Hallgrímskirkja combine figuration, narrative and floating shapes in the spirit of Matisse. Primary forms and colours dominate the field but the foreground explores a story familiar to all of us: Growing up, growing older, and then preparing for the journey that awaits us all.
The road is long from Gunnar’s boyhood on the outskirts of Reykjavík in the 1930s to the point in life where he now finds himself contemplating the end of his life. In his exhibition, the stages of the journey are marked with simple and universal symbols where the balancing emblems of yin and yang sit in harmony alongside Christian symbols. The young boy playing by the ever-changing sea is bathed in a clear light and surrounded by the stillness of mountains that have endured for eons. There is also a calm air about the man who contemplates his final journey. Eternal recurrence and cosmic balance are the primary features of these latest paintings by Gunnar S. Magnússon. He shows the final journey in simple forms and clear colours as a journey home.
- Ragna Sigurðardóttir
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