Reykjavík Grapevine - 12.08.2011, Blaðsíða 23

Reykjavík Grapevine - 12.08.2011, Blaðsíða 23
23 The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 12 — 2011 few people died that year, and the cem- etery stood empty, it was deemed that none of them were of the right standing to be its first patron. Finally, the lady Guðrún Oddsdóttir was deemed wor- thy enough, she and her family were considered to be in good standing in Reykjavík and her grave is marked by the largest iron cross in the cemetery— maybe you can find it? Hólavalla cemetery is a beautiful, serene spot in the city, it is very in- teresting to walk through, and there are many hidden gems of art on the headstones. A few of them are by Einar Jónsson, three of which are very close to each other. They are ‘Come to me’ and ‘Morgunroðinn’ on the grave- stones of Hannes Hafstein and his wife Ragnheiður Hafstein. Look for graves marked with two broken black marble pillars. Hannes was a poet and the first Icelandic minister. Einar also made a statue of him, which you will observe later on this walk. The third is the gravestone of Þorsteinn Erlings- son and his wife Guðrún. Þorsteinn was a journalist and a poet. He could be called radical, often writing against norms and traditions that he thought were hampering the Icelandic nation. Einar designed the shape of the stone, which seems to depict either a candle or a tear. On it is a small bronze plate, which shows a scene similar to another work of Einar called ‘Brautryðjandinn’ which can be seen later on the pedestal of Jón Sigurðsson. Þorsteinn was a dear friend of Einar and died at a relatively young age, so it comes as no surprise that Einar would have wanted to show his respect in this way. 6. Here stands Jón Sigurðsson, with his head held up high and his back straight as an arrow, watching the par- liament building. Jón Sigurðsson was a pioneer in Iceland’s struggle for inde- pendence. This statue originally stood in front of the government offices and was unveiled there in 1911. In 1931 it was moved here to replace the aforemen- tioned Bertel Thorvaldsen self-portrait. Note the smaller work on the pedestal, it is called ‘The pioneer’, and it depicts how Einar viewed Jón and how he want- ed him to be remembered; as a strong pioneer who paved the way for the rest of us. It was a gift from Einar Jónsson, one which allowed him to look past the fact that he was once again forced to do go against his artistic vision and make a lifelike statue. Einar never liked this pedestal they placed Jón on. He report- edly always thought the statue looked like it was leaning backwards, like it was falling. What do you think? 7. Two statues by Einar stand here in front of the government offices, the one to the left is King Christian the 9th of Denmark (and Iceland at the time), holding a rolled up piece of paper which is supposed to be the first Icelandic constitution. Einar finished this statue in 1907, but it was not unveiled here until 1915 due to Icelanders’ prevalently ambivalent attitude about erecting the king of Denmark a memorial. This was when Iceland was still trying to gain more independence from Denmark, so praising the king seemed a little contra- dictory to some. The statue on the right depicts Hannes Hafstein, whose grave you will have stopped by if you are following our map. He was the first Icelandic Minis- ter and a poet. He was actually a damn good poet; look up the poem ‘Stormur’ (“Storm”) for conclusive proof of that. Hannes was one of the men that paved the way for Einar Jónsson’s art educa- tion, by agreeing in congress to grant him a sizeable amount of money so he could pursue his studies abroad. Einar would have felt honoured to be able to repay the favour in this way. Another thing of note is that this is actually the pedestal on which the statue of Jón Sigurðsson stood first, if you remem- ber the shape of ‘The Pioneer’ you will notice that the shield on which Hannes Hafstein's name is on is in the same shape as ‘The Pioneer’. Jón Sigurðsson and ‘The Pioneer’ were both moved over to Austurvöllur when the statue of Hannes Hafstein was put here in 1931. 8. The Icelandic Craftsman Associa- tion (ATH – Iðnaðarmannafélagið) in Reykjavik donated money and held fund raising events so that a memorial to Ingólfur Arnarson (who was the first Icelandic settler, as legend would have it) could be raised on Arnarhóll. Einar had actually started working on a statue of Ingólfur before being approached by the association. He even wrote in a let- ter to a friend in 1902 that he would want it erected on Arnarhóll. Because of difficulties raising funds and problems between the Craftsman association and Einar, the statue was not unveiled until 1924. The whole process took around 22 years. The committee from the asso- ciation was happy with the statue of In- gólfur himself, but they had a big prob- lem with the four reliefs Einar wanted to accompany the statue. They depicted scenes which the committee thought were offensive and had in fact nothing to do with the strong Viking man Ingól- fur was supposed to have been. Einar wanted to show the story of why Ingól- fur chose to come to Iceland, the com- mittee especially disliked the sentence "You should lead yourself," or "Sjálfur leið þú sjálfan þig"—words that Einar thought defined what Ingólfur was all about. The men in the committee thought this was too radical and went against what the Old Icelandic sagas said about Ingólfur. So the statue was raised without the reliefs or the pedes- tal Einar had designed. Einar himself did not show up to the unveiling. The statue is often used as a kind of a logo for Reykjavík. 9. The Culture House was built to house the national library and national archives of Iceland, the National Mu- seum and Natural History Museum were also housed there for some time, and it became known as the Museum Building. It is one of the most beauti- ful buildings in Reykjavík and is men- tioned here because the statues of Jónas Hallgrímsson and Jón Sigurðsson were originally supposed to stand in front of it. Today it houses a permanent exhibi- tion of Old Icelandic manuscripts that are very much worth a look. 10. This is the final stop, the home and studio of the sculptor Einar Jónsson, built for him by the Icelandic state after he donated all of his work to the people of Icelandic. The house was designed by Einar himself in collaboration with the architect Einar Erlendsson and is sometimes said to be his biggest sculp- ture. It was given the name Hnitbjörg by some of Einar's friends. Hnitbjörg in Norse mythology is where the poetic mead was kept and Einar was some- times referred to as the poet sculptor. The museum first opened its doors to the public in 1923 and has welcomed guests ever since. A good place to start is the sculpture garden behind the mu- seum, which contains quite a few exam- ples of Einar's work in bronze. The mu- seum itself contains around 300 works of art made by Einar in his lifetime as well as his studio and living quarters in their original state. walking in the shadows of giants 1 6 2 7 3 8 4 9 5 10
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