Art of the Faroe Islands - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Faroese art is art by artists living in the Faroe Islands

Faroe Islands

The Faroe Islands are an island group situated between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately halfway between Scotland and Iceland. The Faroe Islands are a self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, along with Denmark proper and Greenland...

and art by Faroese nationals living abroad. In the Faroe Islands

Faroe Islands

art is an important part of everyday life and in the public debate. It may be the special light in the Faroes which causes so many to express themselves in painting. The everchanging Faroese weather and light, provides opportunities for endless nuances. Something which has fascinated both foreign and local artists over the years. However, the history of Faroese

Faroese people

The Faroese or Faroe Islanders are a Germanic ethnic group native to the Faeroe Islands. The Faroese are of mixed Norse and Gaelic origins.About 21,000 Faroese live in neighbouring countries, particularly in Denmark, Iceland and Norway....

art is short, and can only be dated a couple of hundred years back. Lack of time, light and materiel may have caused the late appearance of painting. But despite of this, the islands have a very active art scene. A great many of the Faroese artists of today resent being reminded of the fact that Faroese art is a comparatively recent phenomenon. They find such an observation annoying as regards their artistic work, and they claim that such a statement has no bearing whatsoever on them as artists as their frame of reference is both local and global.

With the first Faroese painters the landscape

Landscape

Landscape comprises the visible features of an area of land, including the physical elements of landforms such as mountains, hills, water bodies such as rivers, lakes, ponds and the sea, living elements of land cover including indigenous vegetation, human elements including different forms of...

became a national icon and it has remained the central topic in Faroese visual art. The grip that Faroese art, motifically speaking, takes on the Faroese landscape might seem to be a rather old fashioned approach to visual art. The interest in installations, minimalism and conceptual art, has so far not affected Faroese art much. The village by the ocean is probably the motif which has been repeated the most. Danish art critic Ole Nørlyng concludes that nature, the wild landscape, is the driving force behind Faroese artists. but except for a close affinity with the landscape and culture of the Islands, there has always been great diversity in Faroese art.

The Pioneers

The first paintings art historians are familiar with are those by Díðrikur í Kárastovu. He was a farmer who commonly was known as Díðrikur á Skarvanesi

Díðrikur á Skarvanesi

Díðrikur á Skarvanesi also called Díðrikur í Kárastovu , was born in Dímun and was the first known painter in the Faroe Islands that art historians know of....

(1802–1865). Díðrikur was settled in a small village, Skarvanes

Skarvanes

Skarvanes is a deserted village on Sandoy, in the Faroe Islands. Its last permanent inhabitant died in 2000, although there is still a family living in a nearby valley. The former residential houses in the scenic village are used as summer houses and for similar purposes nowadays....

, on the island Sandoy

Sandoy

Sandoy is a small island that is part of the Faroe Islands, an autonomous region of the Kingdom of Denmark. The largest population center on the island is the village of Sandur with a population of six hundred....

. His subjects were real and imaginary birds in vivid colours. Although not in perfect condition, five of his paintings have been preserved. They are a feature in the permanent exhibition at the national Faroese art museum, Listasavn Føroya. One of his better paintings is entitled Moon Doves.

Niels Kruse (1871–1951) was the first Faroese landscape painter, a theme which was to become a most common motif in Faroese art. Kruse lived in the village Eiði

Eiði

Eiði is a large village located on the north-west tip of Eysturoy, Faroe Islands Its name means isthmus in the Faroese language. The town has a population of 669In the center of the village there is a large stone church from 1881...

on the island Eysturoy

Eysturoy

Eysturoy means East island and is the second-largest of the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic, both in size and population. It is separated by a narrow sound from the main island of Streymoy. Eysturoy is extremely rugged, with some 66 separate mountain peaks, including Slættaratindur, the...

. Kruse was almost completely self-taught. He was fortunate enough to receive some help and advice from an American explorer, Elizabeth Taylor

Elizabeth Taylor (painter)

Elizabeth Taylor was an American artist, journalist, botanist and traveller. Her travel essays from Alaska, Canada, Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Norway were published in Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly, Atlantic Monthly, Forest and Stream and others...

, who stayed in the Faroes in 1895. In 1924 one of his works was accepted by a gallery in Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

. This marked a turning point in Faroese art history, as this was the first time ever a painter had succeeded outside of the Islands. Kruse even managed to make a living from his painting, again something which earlier had been unheard of.

There were some other painters from this early generation. Both Kristin í Geil and Jógvan Waagstein are worth mentioning. Both of them were well settled in Tórshavn

Tórshavn

Tórshavn is the capital and largest town of the Faroe Islands. It is located in the southern part on the east coast of Streymoy. To the north west of the town lies the high mountain Húsareyn, and to the southwest, the high Kirkjubøreyn...

. And again, these two were self-taught landscape painters. As was the case with Kruse, Waagstein received knowledge and advice from Elizabeth Taylor. Later on í Geil received some schooling from Kruse. These two latter, however, never made their living exclusively from painting.

These painters were all pioneers in the field of visual art in the Faroes, and they helped to make their fellow countrymen aware of the art of painting. The late 19th century marks the beginning of a Faroese art tradition slowly developing for the first time. There are several reasons for this being so. The arrival of Elizabeth Taylor with her knowledge of art helped to inspired several to start painting. And most importantly the late 19th century sparked the beginning of the national movement. The national revival brought with it the love of the landscape - a brand new theme which was to become a national icon, more so than anywhere in visual art. The theme came to dominate all through the 20th century.

With the first painters, the love and affection of the homeland was obvious, and still in the 21st Century the theme is being treated by a new generation of artists. However, several painters contributed to Faroese artists developing a passion for many different styles and subjects.

The Mothers and Fathers of Faroese Art

The real history of Faroese art starts in the year 1927. This year, three young artists held an exhibition in Tórshavn

Tórshavn

. Two of these were Sámal Joensen-Mikines

Sámal Joensen-Mikines

Sámuel Joensen-Mikines was a Faroese painter. He was the first recognised painter of the Faroe Islands and one of the Faroe Islands most important artists. Many of his paintings have been displayed on Faroese stamps....

(1906–1979) and William Heinesen

William Heinesen

Andreas William Heinesen was a poet, composer and painter from the Faroe Islands.- His Writing :The Faroese capital Tórshavn is always the centre of Heinesen's writing. He is famous for having once called Tórshavn "The Navel of the World". His writing focuses on contrasts between darkness and...

(1900–1990)

The first, Mikines, came to be known as the father of Faroese art and the first Faroese artist to become internationally recognised. More importantly he was the very first Faroese artist to acquire an artistic degree. Mikines began his education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen in 1928 with Aksel Jørgensen and Ejnar Nielsen as his teachers. Mikines was artistically highly inspired by the Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

artist Edvard Munch

Edvard Munch

Edvard Munch was a Norwegian Symbolist painter, printmaker and an important forerunner of expressionist art. His best-known composition, The Scream, is part of a series The Frieze of Life, in which Munch explored the themes of love, fear, death, melancholia, and anxiety.- Childhood :Edvard Munch...

, and had a great admiration for El Greco

El Greco

El Greco was a painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El Greco" was a nickname, a reference to his ethnic Greek origin, and the artist normally signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek letters, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος .El Greco was born on Crete, which was at...

and Delacroix

Eugène Delacroix

Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school...

. His early paintings are naturalistic, but later he became an expressive figurative painter. He was very original in his choice of colour and design. Mikines demonstrated a new approach to substance and form in painting which had a profound influence on Faroese art. He painted funerals, steep mountains and landscapes. His paintings of pilot whaling

Whaling in the Faroe Islands

Whaling in the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic has been practiced since about the time of the first Norse settlements on the islands. It is regulated by Faroese authorities but not by the International Whaling Commission as there are disagreements about the Commission's competency for small...

became important to future artists. He introduced the possibility of allowing the landscape to mirror the painter´s inner life.

William Heinesen was a very different type of artist. Literature was his vocation. Although he considered himself an amateur in visual art, he created some very important works in Faroese art. His imagery doesn't evolve around the landscape. Folktale, satire and everyday life are Heinesen's subjects.

Post World War II

During this period a new era had begun in Faroese visual art. Mikines wasn't the only one from his generation who received his formal training in Copenhagen. Faroese art experienced a virtual blossoming after World War II, when several talented and productive artists returned to the Faroe Islands after finishing their studies in Denmark. The range of motifs and styles were greatly expanded.

A new generation of artists, who had acquired artistic degrees didn't want to use their art for the sole purpose of expressing their love for their country. The ones who followed included the classical modernist Janus Kamban

Janus Kamban

Janus Kamban is a Faroese sculptor and last living representative from the "first generation" of professional artists in the Faroe Islands.Kamban is the first and most important sculptor in the Faroe Islands...

(1913–2009), the colourist Ruth Smith

Ruth Smith (artist)

Ruth Smith Nielsen was a Faroese artist. She lived for some years in Denmark, where she was educated as a painter first on the Bizzie Højer Art School and later on the Art Academy of Copenhagen...

(1913–1958), the graphical artist Elinborg Lützen (1915–1995) and the great abstract painter Ingálvur av Reyni

Ingálvur av Reyni

Ingálvur av Reyni was the most celebrated painter of the Faroe Islands during the last years.Ingálvur av Reyni was born in Tórshavn. He rebelled through his expressionism against the epic content of his predecessors' art, and has opened up new paths in his painting...

(1920–2005). Together with Mikines and Heinesen, these are the mothers and fathers of Faroese art.

Kamban was the first Faroese sculptor. In style he ranges from the strictly naturalistic to the classically simple. His subjects are usually people, and he uses clay, bronze and basaltic rock for his sculptures. As a graphic artist, Kamban mostly portrays the Faroese landscape.

Smith was one of the most talented Faroese artists. Her subjects were scenery and faces. She worked very consciously with colour. Over a period of twenty years she painted numerous self-portraits, one has been held as one of the finest portraits in Scandinavian art.

Lützen´s work is full of creatures from the world of myth, legend and folktale. With Lützen the graphic arts became an independent art form which enriched the artistic milieu through her all-absorbing interest in the technique of linocut, and the result of her artistic work is of high quality and intensity measured by any standard.

Av Reyni has been the most influential of them all. The dynamic lines and the temperamental pastose brushwork has become a vital part the Faroese painting tradition. Av Reyni introduced cubism, abstract expressionism and suprematism to the Faroes. His early works were rather naturalistic landscapes, but in the early 1960s he dissolved the romantic and impressionist landscape, when he started to paint more and more abstract. His paintings usually contain a figurative core, which is described by the title of his paintings. As a black-and-white artist, he has drawn many portraits as well as landscapes. He is ranked as one of the great modernists in Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...

.

The Landscape Expressionists

The common denomination “landscape expressionist” comprises a group of diverse artists, solely because the nature and landscape are central themes in their work. Zacharias Heinesen

Zacharias Heinesen

Zacharias Heinesen is a Faroese landscape painter. He is the son of the writer William Heinesen.He attended Myndlistaskóli Íslands in Reykjavik between 1957-58. In 1959-1963 he attended the Royal Danish Academy of Art in Copenhagen. Through the years he has held a number of exhibitions and his...

(1936), Thomas Arge (1942–1978), Tróndur Patursson

Tróndur Patursson

Tróndur Patursson is a Faroese painter, sculptor, and glass artist. He was educated in Norway and was initially a sculptor. He has since become better known as a painter and glass artist....

(1943), Torbjørn Olsen (1956), Barður Jákupsson (1943) and Amariel Norðoy (1945) all belong to this group, as do many others.
This large generation of painters from the 1930´s to 1960´s has been able to find common stylistic expressions.
They exploit the full spectrum of the formal possibilities painting has to offer. They work with the unified whole and detail. Sometimes the subject matter almost disappears in the pure abstraction of the colours and forms, but rarely completely. A reminiscence of the landscape always remains. Not as a true-to-life reproduction, but as a landscape experience which is communicated via a variety of temperaments. So great has their contribution to Faroese art been that for a long time a genuine Faroese painting should preferably be a highly colouristic, expressive and semi abstract landscape, filled with North-atlantic drama. It’s not an unusual critic that Faroese art relies to heavy on nature as a motif. But when the variety of expression is taken into account, the criticism doesn’t seem fair.

Zacharias Heinesen has in his paintings explored the light and colours of the landscape and tried to render the ephemeral moment.

In Thomas Arge´s paintings we get a glimpse of the inner structures, shapes and colours of the landscape.

Bárður Jákupsson has found shapes and colours that others probably do not notice in Faroese Nature.

In Tróndur Patursson´s work it is the sense of immensity of nature that gains significance.

The village by the ocean is probably the motif which has been repeated the most in Faroese art. In Countless paintings Amariel Norðoy has repeated the motif and shown it contains unlimited possibilities.

But despite the light and distinct colours of nature and scenery, Faroese art is not exclusively landscape.

Contemporary Faroese Art

The landscape has been the national theme of Faroese painting, arguably as a collectively chosen shell around the core of modern painting. In recent years, however, other subjects have emerged and appear to be edging out the landscape. The common denominator for the younger generation of Faroese artists is that they all have managed to outline new directions for Faroese art, while at the same time, relating with insight to the Faroese landscape tradition. The interest in the human mind, existential or philosophical questions or the internal landscapes seems to rise. The postmodern interest in contemporary philosophy, mass media and politics has begun to appear in Faroese art, and has emerged concomitantly with its appearance in other countries.

The Faroese visual art has hardly ever been as manifold as it is today, although the genre remains traditional painting. There is a lot of pessimism among the artists themselves. They are doubtful of the future of Faroese art and they fear that the small-scaled nature and isolation of Faroese art may prove to be insurmountable handicaps. In the long run, they say 50,000 people and a couple of dozen artists will not be able to sustain a living artistic culture. Naturally, there is a danger that it might stagnate and die from lack of nourishment. At the same time, it is difficult to see how things could go so wrong while the need is so great.

There are many young artists who are currently identifying new paths for Faroese art. The younger generation of Faroese artists has mainly chosen to reside abroad as has Hansina Iversen, who is based in Copenhagen and Hanni Bjartalíð in Helsinki.

Hansina Iversen (1966) ostensibly distances herself from nature as a motif. Her pictures are non-figurative and pure, seemingly purified of motif. The smooth fluency of her works are an exploration of the absolute and, thus, nature. Iversen has created a new philosophical approach to the Faroese Landscape tradition.

Hanni Bjartalíð
Hanni Bjartalíð
Hanni Bjartalíð is a Faroese painter. He attended art school in Kokkola in Finland. He has held exhibitions in the Faroe Islands, Denmark, Finland and Germany. He is currently living in Finland.-External links:...

(1968) uses humour
Humour
Humour or humor is the tendency of particular cognitive experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement...

to describe man´s relation to nature. His imagery is primarily of the modern world. Modern man´s alienation from nature is a natural theme in his art. Bjartalíð demonstrates great freedom regarding Faroese and Nordic art landscape traditions, which are associated with romantic conception of a uniqe Nordic soul characterised by a close relation to nature.

Edward Fuglø(1965) avoids landscapes; his symbolism concerns people. He creates surreal-comic and ironic paintings. Fuglø observes and mocks people – mostly men – in their absurd activities. The images are always pointed at political or perhaps art-political commentary. His imagery is in many ways innovative in the Faroese tradition. Fuglø is also one of the best illustrators in the Faroes.

Art galleries

In the Faroe Islands there is a great interest in buying Faroese art to decorate your home with. This apreciation means that it´s easy to find art galleries round about the islands. Some galleries are dedicated to local artists, while others have regular exhibitions. But the number of art galleries is highest in Tórshavn

Tórshavn

In Tórshavn you will find the national art museum Listasavn Føroya. The Art Museum was founded in 1989. The present gallery was opened in 1993. The exhibition building is faced with black tarred wood, and has elements of traditional Faroese building. It is surrounded by trees, as it´s situated next to a park. The permanent collection displays some of the best works by William Heinesen, Ingálvur av Reyni and Sámal Mikines. Each year two exhibitions take place that focus exclusively on Faroese artists. The first one is the spring exhibition in May; the second is the annual Saint Olav's Day exhibition in late July. Whereas the first one exclusively features professional artists, the latter one mainly features amateurs.

Listahøllin is situated in a geen concrete building at Tórshavn Shipyard.

In Vágur
Vágur
Vágur meaning Bay is a town on the Faroe Islands of Suðuroy, it is situated on the east coast of the island on the Vágsfjørður fjord, and dates from the fourteenth century. Expansion has meant that the nearby town of Nes is now a suburb of Vágur...

located in the island Suðuroy
Suðuroy
Suðuroy is the southernmost of the Faroe Islands. The island covers 163.7 km². In 2010 there were 4763 inhabitants, but there has been a gradual decline in the population numbers ever since the 1950s....

the southernmost island, there is a Ruth Smith
Ruth Smith
Ruth Smith may refer to:*Ruth Smith , Faroese painter*Ruth Smith , 1996 winner of Rose Mary Crawshay Prize*Ruth P. Smith , an American pro-choice and reproductive rights advocate...

Art Museum. The art museum has artworks (paintings and drawings) made by Ruth Smith.

In Sandur
Sandur
A sandur is a glacial outwash plain formed of sediments deposited by meltwater at the terminus of a glacier.- Formation :Sandar are found in glaciated areas, such as Svalbard, Kerguelen Islands, and Iceland...

, the main village on Sandoy
Sandoy
Sandoy is a small island that is part of the Faroe Islands, an autonomous region of the Kingdom of Denmark. The largest population center on the island is the village of Sandur with a population of six hundred....

, there is an art museum "Listasavnið á Sandi" with artworks (paintings, sculptures etc.) by various Faroese artists. The art collection and the museum building was donated to the village in 2005 by a Sofus Olsen, who grew up in Sandur, but lived in Tórshavn for many years. The museum opened on his 92nd birthday.

Art on Stamps

Several paintings by Faroese artists have been featured on stamps. All Faroese stamp editions are about items relating to the Faroes and most of them are designed by Faroese artists. Faroese art is among the main motifs, both in reproductions of important paintings and in involving the artists in drawing stamps.

The Pioneers

The Mothers and Fathers of Faroese Art

Post World War II

The Landscape Expressionists

Contemporary Faroese Art

Art galleries

Art on Stamps

See also

External links