Ritið : tímarit Hugvísindastofnunar - 01.10.2018, Síða 209

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viðtökur eru skoðaðar og greindar út frá afstöðu þeirra og þeim hugmyndafræðilegu
forsendum sem í þeim birtist. Þannig er greinin tilraun til að auka skilning á fag­
urfræðilegum áhrifum listar Þórarins, en jafnframt að veita innsýn í þær forsendur
og áherslur sem tengjast uppgangi norrænnar listar á undanförnum áratugum.
Lykilorð: Landslagsmálverk, listfræði, listasaga, saga listfræði, norræn list, íslensk list,
nútímalist, rómantík, klassík, realismi, natúralismi, þjóðernishyggja
A B S T R A C T
Þórarinn B. Þorláksson
– The ideological reception of the first Icelandic professional painter
Þórarinn B. Þorláksson (1867–1924) has been credited with being the first Icelandic
professional painter. His reception, both during his lifetime and posthumously,
is therefore an interesting indication of the changes in the outlook and ideology
surrounding the reception of Scandinavian fin­de­siécle art up to the present. He
was honourably mentioned by his contemporaries and then was forgotten in the
upheavals surrounding the adoption of modern styles, such as abstract art, in Ice­
land around the Second World War. He re­gained attention in the sixties and has
since then been revered as an important, though problematic, pioneer of Icelandic
painting. This has in recent years been especially evident in the way he has been
mentioned in the context of the revival of Nordic and Scandinavian late 19th and
early 20th century art in Northern­Europe and America. The paper reviews and
analyses the historical reception Þorláksson has received and the way his work has
been inscribed into the narrative of Icelandic and Scandinavian Art History. This
process is an attempt to understand and contextualise Þorláksson’s work in aesthetic
terms, while at the same time function as a critical mirror of the trends and ideolo­
gies surrounding the Nordic revival in recent years.
Keywords: Landscape painting, art theory, art history, art historiography, Icelandic
art, Scandinavian art, romanticism, classicism, realism, naturalism, nationalism
Hlynur Helgason
Lektor í listfræði
Íslensku­ og menningardeild
Hugvísindasviði Háskóla Íslands
Sæmundargötu 2
IS­101 Reykjavík, Ísland
hlynurh@hi.is
VIðTöKUR Á VERKUM ÞÓRARINS B. ÞoRLÁKSSoNAR