This book is published in conjuction with the exhibition Drawing – Traversing Time and Technique in the National Museum of Iceland’s Bogasalur gallery (15 September 2012 – 6 January 2013). The exhibition presents drawings made in the late eighteenth century and others made at the start of the twenty-first, the work of four artists.
There are drawings by mathematician John Baine of Edinburgh, born in 1754; drawings and graphic works by one of Scandinavia’s best known living artists, Per Kirkeby, of Denmark; paintings and drawings by the Icelandic artist Anna Guðjónsdóttir, who has for many years resided in Germany; and works by Thóra Sigurðardóttir, artist and creator of this exhibition.
John Baine’s drawings, made on an expidition mounted by Sir John Thomas Stanley to the Faroe Islands and Iceland in 1789, offer the viewer a scientist’s observations and analysis. Per Kirkeby’s images, made on hikes in Iceland and the Faroe Islands from 2001 to 2008, reflect his background in geology and field studies in the far North. Recent works by Anna Guðjónsdóttir have clear reference to journeys of exploration in unexpected places. Thóra Sigurðardóttir’s graphic works from 2011 find their source in the immediate and natural environments, in the common traces that evidence the passage of time.
