Icelandic Art Today

Book excerpt: Icelandic culture is so strongly oriented towards language that the visual arts didn't truly begin to develop until the early twentieth century - which is remarkable for a Western country. This unique situation may explain the nature of the contemporary art scene in Iceland. Even though Conceptual art remains a considerable international influence, and globalization is most certainly affecting this isolated island in the North Atlantic, Icelandic art continues to develop at its own speed, marked by a playful creative energy and the pleasure of experimentation. Icelandic Art Today introduces 50 of the country's most important artists - including Finnbogi Petursson, Gabriela Fridriksdottir, Helgi Thorgils Fridjonsson, Icelandic Love Corporation, Katrin Sigurdardottir, Margret H. Blondal, Olafur Olafsson + Libia Castro, Ragnar Kjartansson and Ruri and Steingrimur Eyfjord - who have contributed to the contemporary landscape of Icelandic art from the 1970s through the present. Essays by historian and curator Christian Schoen, critic Halldor Bjorn Runolfsson and Director of the Reykjavik Art Museum Hafthor Yngvason trace the development of Iceland's avant-garde over the past 40 years.