Reykjavík Grapevine - mar. 2021, Blaðsíða 12

The Raw Power Of
Pop Baroque
Erró's energy flows through Icelandic
art in a new exhibition
Words: John Pearson Photos: Art Bicnick
The name Erró is often followed
by the phrase “Iceland’s most
famous artist,” a custom which
can leave the uninitiated perhaps
feeling a little under-informed, or
even philistine. For Erró’s work
isn’t given the unmissable civic
prominence awarded, say, to Miró
or Gaudí by Catalonia.
Thankfully the Reykjavík Art
Museum is perfectly placed to
bring the unenlightended into
Erró’s warm glow, given that it
possesses over four thousand
pieces of his work. The newly-
opened ‘Raw Power’ exhibit dis-
plays a selection of these along-
side work from 15 other Icelandic
artists, encouraging the viewer to
draw comparisons, discover con-
nections and witness Erro’s influ-
ence on the collective creativity of
his native culture.
Physically separate,
creatively connected
Erró left Iceland as a young man
to study art, eventually relocat-
ing to New York in 1964 where he
befriended pop-artists Roy Lich-
tenstein and Andy Warhol, and
began to develop his own style
of painted collage appropriation.
Later on, he ventured back across
the Atlantic to find himself ap-
propriated by European creative
culture, eventually becoming sub-
sumed by French art history while
residing in Paris.
Birgir Snæbjörn Birgisson—
Reykjavík artist, and erstwhile
technician at the Reykjavík Art
Museum—curated ‘Raw Power’
at the request
of his former
employer. He re-
members being
lectured on Erró
when he was an
art student in
France.
“I was study-
ing in Stras -
b o u r g a t t h e
time,” he recalls.
”They were covering the French
art scene, and Erró was men-
tioned. By chance, the professor
remembered that I was in the
class, and pointed out to the class
that actually Erró was Icelandic.
And that told me how embedded
he was in the French art scene.”
Art philosopher Arthur Danto
once described Erró as “bring-
ing pop art into its flamboyant
baroque,” a description which
further cemented his place in the
continental European tradition.
This appropriation by other cul-
tures—and Erró’s absence from
Iceland for most of his life—have
perhaps tended to foster the per-
ception of a remove between the
artist and his homeland.
“I never felt that the separa-
tion was at his request,” says
Birgir. “I mean, he regularly gives
his works to the City of Reykjavík.
When the decision was made to
house his archive here and have a
permanent show, maybe the sep-
arateness comes from that. May-
be it’s because mixing him with
other artists was never an option,
until now.”
The chance for ‘Raw Power’
arose when the museum an-
nounced similar shows focussing
on Icelandic painter Jóhannes S.
Kjarval, and Icelandic sculptor
Ásmundur Sveinsson. The Erró
exhibit completes
this triptych.
“I had pointed
out the idea be-
hind ‘Raw Power’
to the museum
a few times, and
I'm not the only
one,” Birgir points
out. “Hopefully
this exhibition
will open up the
chance for more Erró shows tack-
ling narrower themes, such as
politics.”
Iggy Pop art
The show is named after a small
post-pop-art collage produced
by Erró in 2009, featuring an ap-
propriated cartoon depiction of
Detroit musician Iggy Pop. Fit-
tingly then, the title of the exhi-
bition is itself an appropriation.
‘Raw Power' is the title of the
Culture
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V O L C A N O
C O L L E C T I O N
“I think Erró has
influenced us
all, even though
we don't want to
admit it."
12The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 03— 2021
Lukas Bury's 'Lithuania, My Fatherland!"