BA verkefni í myndlist (dragged)

# Rýnt á milli gólffjala íslenskrar myndlistarsögu: framlag kvenna til íslenskrar grafíklistar Hallbjörg Helga Guðnadóttir Final project for BA degree in Fine Arts Iceland University of the Arts Department of Fine Arts Spring semester 2025 Rýnt á milli gólffjala íslenskrar myndlistarsögu: Hallbjörg Helga Guðnadóttir 
 women's contribution to Icelandic graphic art Final project for BA degree in Fine Arts Supervisor: Heiðar Kári Rannversson Art Art Department Spring Semester 2025 This thesis is a 6 ECTS final project for a BA degree in Fine Arts at the Iceland University of the Arts. It is prohibited to copy the thesis in any way without the author's permission. Abstract In this thesis, I intertwine my theoretical and practical approach to graphic art. In the first part, I review how art history has been revised and even rewritten in recent years, with the aim of shedding light on visual artists who have not previously had the opportunity to do so. I discuss how women's creativity was long dismissed and how certain art media are characterized by gender roles. Along with that, I discuss Gallerí Langbrók and examine the history of graphic art in Iceland through women's contributions to the medium. I focus on Barbara Árnason and her prolific career in Iceland, as her role in the history of graphic art in Iceland is influential, although it receives little attention on the pages of Icelandic art history. The experiential story of Steinunn Þ. Guðmundsdóttir is discussed, her children's book *Rauðu stígvélin hans Gjafars litla* is examined, along with the concept of "old women's books." The relationship between visual art and children's books is explored, along with the pattern that women who dedicate themselves to children's literature are dismissed as visual artists. In the second part, I discuss my experience of feeling disconnected from the concepts of visual artist and poet, due to masculine stereotypes. I trace my journey towards claiming these concepts and shed light on my own creative process and the rabbit holes I often get lost in along the way. My works and their inspirations are examined, along with their relationship with the viewer. In the end, I review my experience of working with graphic media and the importance of dedicating oneself to something that is inefficient. Table of Contents Introduction .............................................................................................................2 Part One .............................................................................................................3 1.1 Lifting the Veil ........................................................................................3 1.2 Women Work on the Run, Not 9-5 ..........................................................4 1.3 Graphic Art Long Stamped as Feminine ..................................................5 1.4 Old Wives' Tales ......................................................................................7 1.5 To Fuss and Polish ...................................................................................8 Part Two ............................................................................................................10 2.1 Down the Rabbit Hole ...........................................................................10 2.2 The Line Between Trouble and Creative Joy .........................................11 2.3 Through the Looking Glass .....................................................................14 Conclusion .........................................................................................................16 Bibliography ......................................................................................................17 List of Figures ...................................................................................................18 !2 Introduction Over the past year, I have dedicated myself to printmaking and the many methods that fall under it. I initially turned to print media out of resistance to mass production and quick fixes. The printing process offers countless potential mistakes along the way, and it is impossible to predict or fully control the outcome of the works, which is a very healthy approach in a world that increasingly promotes perfectionism and control over various forces. In a world where newspapers, books, and even visual art are increasingly moving to digital formats, it is endlessly important for me to work with materiality. An example is lithography, an age-old tradition, as technical as it is physical. At the Iceland University of the Arts, there are facilities for lithography, but they are not widely used. To achieve a single lithograph, one must go through a process that involves many steps, and considerable chemistry is involved. Acid, turpentine, and gum are just a few of the substances used on the limestone, and it is important to work in the correct order. The grainy texture obtained from lithography is unique and a direct connection for me to the rugged landscape of Iceland. Inspiration is not far to seek. The mind takes flight among the beings that Kjarval saw in the rock and the outlaw that Einar Jónsson freed from stone. Alongside creating my own print works, I am interested in the history of Icelandic printmaking, and particularly the contribution of women to that history, as many of the pioneers of printmaking in Iceland were women. Printmaking in Iceland has only fallen into the shadow of other art media that receive more attention and use, and I therefore wish to trace its history alongside digging into the roots of my own artistic creation. !3 Part One 1.1 Un v eiling the Veil The history of art, both Icelandic and international, is often described as if it were carved in stone, in other words, immutable. In reality, it is the opposite. Art history is biased and always written as such. There has been a conversation that in contemporary art, art movements are a thing of the past, that it is neither the content nor the message of works that makes the news, but rather how much they sell for. Such conversations are characterized by an existential crisis among visual artists and art historians in an ever-changing technological age; recently, the discussion has focused on the looming threat of artificial intelligence. But such an existential crisis is not a new phenomenon. When the death of painting was declared at the birth of photography, there was a great commotion in the art world, and many turned to other media. However, in the aftermath, painters were freed from the pursuit of realism, and movements like Impressionism sought to evoke the subjectivity that photography had eliminated from its works.1 It can be said that what characterizes the visual art world today is a retelling of art history, which involves removing the veil that has been cast over art that is not white, male, or Western. There is talk of looking back, re-evaluating, digging up, and creating space for voices that could not speak their own language, along with reassessing what and whom we are exhibiting in art museums. An example is when Simone Leigh was chosen to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale in 2022, the first Black woman to do so. For her work *Brick House* (2019), she won the Golden Lion at the main exhibition that year. In her art, Leigh utilizes ancient and modern sculptural techniques in connection with themes of race and the female body, resulting in poetic sculptures.2 Another famous example is the exhibition of Hilma af Klint's works at the Guggenheim Museum in 2018, which highlighted that she had been creating abstract works before the fathers of abstract art, Kandinsky and Mondrian, began to transform the art scene with their non-representational works.3 It can thus be said that art history is like worn floorboards where gaps can be seen between them, and much has been swept under them. In the past, there has been scrutiny of what might be hidden in the cracks, but now the floorboards are being ripped up to see what actually lies beneath. 1 Tunkelang, Daniel. "From Today, Creativity Is Dead!" Medium, May 23, 2023. https://dtunkelang.medium.com/from-today-creating-is-dead-8888db25b868 2 Weisburg, Madeline. "Simone Leigh" La Biennale di Venezia. https://www.labiennale.org/en/art/2022/milk-dreams/simone-leigh 3 "Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future" Guggenheim New York. https://www.guggenheim.org/exhibition/hilma-af-klint !4 Icelandic art history is no exception. However, it is worth noting that Iceland has always been a very white society, and that is reflected in its art history. In a white and Western society, it is easy to guess who must yield when there is little discrimination between men: women and queer people. Discussions about the artistic creation of individuals who are not heterosexual men have long been characterized by mockery and outright dismissal. It is worth mentioning that Icelandic visual art history is said to have begun around the turn of the 20th century, as Icelandic men then started going abroad to study painting at art schools. This is particularly marked by the visual art exhibition of Thorarinn B. Thorlaksson in the GlasgowHouse in Reykjavík in 1900, and he is often called the first Icelandic painter. This definition is not only narrow-minded but also false. One need only take a trip to the National Museum of Iceland to demonstrate visual art in various forms in Icelandic human history, such as the Valþjófsstaður door (believed to be from around 1200) and various embroidery works. The boundaries between national heritage and visual art are gray and are not clearly defined. It is interesting to consider whether the large number of textile works plays a role here, as that medium has historically been considered feminine. 1.2 Women work on the run, not from 9-5 Today, it is said that textile works by women are considered feminist, regardless of whether that is the artist's intention or not, because the medium itself is deemed feminine. This involves deeply rooted stereotypes with a long and outdated history embedded in gender roles: that women engage in modest creations such as sewing and watercolor painting, while men's creations take on more robust forms like oil paintings and sculptures. Langbrók Gallery was founded in 1978 by a group of visual artists who shared the commonality of being women. Among them were fabric print and textile artists whose goal was to present their works. In the wake of the women's movement, women were seeking a medium they connected with to express themselves. They had a long tradition of working with ribbon, thread, weaving, and wool, and it was a medium they knew well and felt comfortable using. However, textile was not regarded as a worthy form of visual art, and women wanted to change that. It was a conscious decision to include only women in the founding of the gallery, as they knew each other, trusted one another, and could accommodate personal issues such as attending to art. 4 Katrín Helena Jónsdóttir. "Akkilesarhæll íslenskrar listasögu", Hugrás - Vefrit Hugvísindasviðs Háskóla Íslands, 24 April 2018. https://hugras.is/2018/04/akkilesarhaell-islenskrar-listasogu/ 5 Dillmann, François-Xavier. "Um rúnir í norrænum fornbókmenntum." Translated by Adolf Friðriksson. Skírnir 174, 1 September 2000, page 351. !5 alongside childbirth.6 Elísabet Haraldsdóttir stated in an interview: "We have the children and can therefore only work for short periods at a time." Sigrún Guðjónsdóttir added in the same interview that when her children were small, she did not work on larger pieces than those that could fit comfortably on the kitchen table to be able to move them away before anything spilled on them.7 While the gallery operated, it was a powerful center for women's visual art, especially various types of textile art and three-dimensional works, although drawings, paintings, and graphic art were also exhibited. Textile art had taken root in the 1970s with the establishment of a special department at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts under the direction of Hildur Hákonardóttir, and later Edda Óskarsdóttir, but with the founding of Gallery Langbrók, a platform for ambitious exhibitions of this kind was finally established.8 Regarding the question of criticism of their works, the Langbrók women agreed that "male critics" did not understand what women were doing, especially those working with textiles, who were often called "textile crones." For comparison, they mentioned Hrafnhildur Schram's reviews of their exhibitions, noting a significant difference. They pointed out that "arts and crafts" such as ceramics and textiles were not recognized as art, that is, the material itself, and that the National Gallery of Iceland had only recently begun to purchase arts and crafts. The Langbrók women were therefore struggling to have works in these materials recognized.9 They also noted that women were not only in the majority in textiles and ceramics but also in graphic art.10 1.3 Graphic art for a long time stamped feminine It can be said that the origins of graphic art in Iceland began in the printing house at Hólar in Hjaltadalur, where illustrated initials and miniatures were carved for the Guðbrandsbiblía. Otherwise, it was not until young Icelandic men went abroad to study art around the turn of the century in 1900 that Icelanders became acquainted with the techniques of graphic art. However, it was not until 1925 that the first graphic art exhibition was held, by Guðmundur Einarsson from Miðdalur, who also brought to the country the first graphic press.11 6 Helga Thorberg, "Langbrók Gallery." Vera, December 1, 1983, p. 29. 7 Helga Thorberg, "Langbrók Gallery.", p. 30. 8 Jón Proppé. "From v arious materials to sculptures." In Icelandic Art History V, Ólafur Kvaran ed i t o r, pp. 118-141, (Reykjavík:Forlagið and National Gallery of Iceland, 2011), p. 118. 9 Helga Thorberg, "Langbrók Gallery" p. 31 10 Helga Thorberg, "Langbrók Gallery" p. 29 11 "Graphic Art" Listavefurinn. https://listavefurinn.is/midlar/grafik/#_ftn1