From Iceland — 70 Years Of Erró, Now In Hafnarhúsið

70 Years Of Erró, Now In Hafnarhúsið

Published April 11, 2022

Alice Poggio
Photo by
Erró

This Saturday a retrospective exhibition, which celebrates seventy years of Erró’s career, was opened at the Reykjavik Art Museum in Hafnarhúsið. The exhibition bears the name of ‘Sprengikraftur Myndlistar’ which translates to: ‘Explosive Power of Art’, and it is the most extensive curated collection of his works in Iceland, featuring over 300 paintings, collages and videos. 

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Erró seemed extremely pleased with the exhibition, curated by Gunnar and Danielle Kvaran: “I am very happy, more than happy with the show. It is so well set up. Choice of wall colours and the history of the pictures. This is wonderfully well done,”RÚV reports. 

He adds: “There are a lot of pictures I had forgotten. It’s a lot of fun for me to experience this. “

Back in 1989, Erró gave the City of Reykjavík a large collection of his works, a total of about 2,000 pieces. In addition to the art works, he donated an extensive collection of private correspondence and other documents relevant to his artistic career, which serve as valuable sources for research on Erró and that time period. The collection has nearly doubled over the years, now holding about 4,000 works of art. 

Erró is one of the few Icelandic artists that gained significant international recognition. 

An extremely hard-worker, and remarkably productive, he has created over 16,000 paintings and more than 30,000 collages. He is celebrating his 90th birthday in July, but he shows no signs of slowing down, with many more projects on the horizon.

This exhibition will also be set up in Denmark and in France, where the artist resides.

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