Kristján Gudmundsson
11 Sep - 03 Oct 2010
KRISTJÁN GUDMUNDSSON
"Paintings in Gray and White Frames"
11.9 – 3.10.2010
Kristján Gudmundsson (born 1941) is a pioneer of Icelandic conceptual art, which is well known and highly esteemed among all admirers of this genre. It emerged around the turn of the 1960s and 1970s among young Icelandic artists and in connection with the Súm gallery founded by them in Reykjavik.
The genre is marked by intelligence, severity, lyricism and humour. It is contemplative, restrained and insightful, and refuses to accept things as given. The world and its phenomena are enigmas, for which art is really the only source of precise, detailed and comprehensive answers.
Kristján Gudmundsson's works have always employed highly reduced forms. His critical thinking and gaze have eliminated everything that is unnecessary, simplifying, and leaving only that which is necessary, and suffices, to be seen. Gudmundsson works in an area where tensions are generated when the non-existent comes into existence.
In their content, Gudmundsson's works are intellectual challenges, addressing a wide range of scholarly, artistic and human issues. He has a fascinating manner of combining seemingly incommensurate things in his works. Colour may turn into verbal expression, time can become visual, and mathematical series of numbers may refer to pleasures of the mind and the body. Gudmundsson's works stimulate intelligent viewers and give aesthetes deep satisfaction. Their refined humour appeals to some, while others find appeal in their absoluteness in the manner of mathematical formulas.
In 2009, Kristján Gudmundsson received the Carnegie Art Award, the largest art prize of the Nordic countries, for his series "Paintings in Gray and White Frames". Works from this series are included in the present exhibition, which is Kristján Gudmundsson's sixth at Galerie Anhava.
In these paintings of completely new type, Gudmundsson combines in his typical fashion elements appealing to different senses in individual works. He uses industrially made perforated metal frames that have been cut to size, with monochrome painted soundproofing material showing through the holes. Standard-sized panels of this kind are normally used for acoustic sound dampening in building interiors. As often before, Gudmundsson has appropriated here an everyday material developed for practical needs, processing it into works that not only charm the viewer with their elegant proportions and the different reflective characteristics of the materials but also arouse interesting questions about the synaesthetic properties of the pieces.
Though differing in form from all of Gudmundsson's earlier works, the exhibits nevertheless evoke a strange feeling of recognition. The relationship of the colours, shapes and different-sized holes of the panels both among themselves and with other elements is unconditional, indisputable and perfect.
The opening of the exhibition will take place exceptionally on Saturday, 11 September from 5 to 7 pm. On that day forty years ago, Kristján Gudmundsson and Solveig Magnúsdóttir were married, and we wish to celebrate the anniversary with this exhibition and point out that this remembered date “9/11” can also mark happy events.
"Paintings in Gray and White Frames"
11.9 – 3.10.2010
Kristján Gudmundsson (born 1941) is a pioneer of Icelandic conceptual art, which is well known and highly esteemed among all admirers of this genre. It emerged around the turn of the 1960s and 1970s among young Icelandic artists and in connection with the Súm gallery founded by them in Reykjavik.
The genre is marked by intelligence, severity, lyricism and humour. It is contemplative, restrained and insightful, and refuses to accept things as given. The world and its phenomena are enigmas, for which art is really the only source of precise, detailed and comprehensive answers.
Kristján Gudmundsson's works have always employed highly reduced forms. His critical thinking and gaze have eliminated everything that is unnecessary, simplifying, and leaving only that which is necessary, and suffices, to be seen. Gudmundsson works in an area where tensions are generated when the non-existent comes into existence.
In their content, Gudmundsson's works are intellectual challenges, addressing a wide range of scholarly, artistic and human issues. He has a fascinating manner of combining seemingly incommensurate things in his works. Colour may turn into verbal expression, time can become visual, and mathematical series of numbers may refer to pleasures of the mind and the body. Gudmundsson's works stimulate intelligent viewers and give aesthetes deep satisfaction. Their refined humour appeals to some, while others find appeal in their absoluteness in the manner of mathematical formulas.
In 2009, Kristján Gudmundsson received the Carnegie Art Award, the largest art prize of the Nordic countries, for his series "Paintings in Gray and White Frames". Works from this series are included in the present exhibition, which is Kristján Gudmundsson's sixth at Galerie Anhava.
In these paintings of completely new type, Gudmundsson combines in his typical fashion elements appealing to different senses in individual works. He uses industrially made perforated metal frames that have been cut to size, with monochrome painted soundproofing material showing through the holes. Standard-sized panels of this kind are normally used for acoustic sound dampening in building interiors. As often before, Gudmundsson has appropriated here an everyday material developed for practical needs, processing it into works that not only charm the viewer with their elegant proportions and the different reflective characteristics of the materials but also arouse interesting questions about the synaesthetic properties of the pieces.
Though differing in form from all of Gudmundsson's earlier works, the exhibits nevertheless evoke a strange feeling of recognition. The relationship of the colours, shapes and different-sized holes of the panels both among themselves and with other elements is unconditional, indisputable and perfect.
The opening of the exhibition will take place exceptionally on Saturday, 11 September from 5 to 7 pm. On that day forty years ago, Kristján Gudmundsson and Solveig Magnúsdóttir were married, and we wish to celebrate the anniversary with this exhibition and point out that this remembered date “9/11” can also mark happy events.