Exhibitions / Youhannes Sveinsson Kyarval in the Russian Museum

This retrospective exhibition presents key-works from the creative oeuvre of Kjarval (his full name was Jóhannes Sveinsson Kjarval), who was one of the pioneers of Icelandic visual art. During his long career as a painter, from 1918, when he completed his art studies, until the 1960s, his essential philosophy remained the same - that nature is alive. Kjarval developed his own view of nature, which was expressed so powerfully in his art. The aspects of nature he chose as his subjects were mountains, lava fields, and the moss that typically grows in the lava. In the familiar, the modest, Kjarval discerned a glorious complexity and beauty: the expanses of lava glow in the light; stones speak; and mysterious life comes into being. In 1973, the City of Reykjavík opened a museum dedicated to Kjarval’s art, entitled Karvalsstadir, which lent many of the works in the exhibition.