Looking Inward, Looking... | Exhibitions

Looking Inward, Looking Outward: 140 years of the National Gallery of Iceland

National Gallery of Iceland

Reykjavík | Iceland

12 Oct, 2024 - 06 Apr, 2025

The 140th anniversary of the founding of the National Gallery of Iceland is marked by a new exhibition: Looking Inward, Looking Outward: 140 Years of the National Gallery of Iceland. The exhibition highlights important acquisitions from the collection by nearly 100 artists, including significant gifts to the museum and important purchase.

The exhibition is organized around four main themes: Society and Community; Picturing the Self and Others; Form, Line and Colour; and Humans and Nature. Certain works of art look outwards 鈥� at the country, the artist鈥檚 immediate surroundings, society, or the world as a whole 鈥� and tend to provide a vision that gives rise to self-realisation for individuals and society. Other works of art look inward, exploring the self, history or cultural heritage, also open an outward view 鈥� a broader perspective on the world.

Close to 200 works by nearly 100 artists are displayed, including painting, sculpture, photography, video, installations and book art. The collection history span the period from the founding of the museum in 1884 鈥� when the collection comprised mainly works by Danish artists 鈥� to the era of the pioneers of Icelandic art, 脼贸rarinn B. 脼orl谩ksson and J贸hannes S. Kjarval, to the postwar period represented by N铆na Tryggvad贸ttir and Louisa Matth铆asd贸ttir, and to the era of avant-garde artists such as Magn煤s T贸masson and Sigur冒ur Gu冒mundsson. New works will also be shown, including Melanie Ubaldo鈥檚 But You鈥檙e Too Tanned Though for an Icelander, a work that points to how artists are continuously addressing new subjects and developments in society. The works on display provide insight into the history of Icelandic art, from its beginnings until the present day, while an international dimension is also present in works by world-renowned artists such as Edward Munch, Pablo Picasso, Dieter Roth and Roni Horn.