About the Artist

A self-taught artist who has become one of Iceland’s leading artistic figures nationally and internationally, Gunnar Örn Gunnarsson (1946-2008) was discovered by Guggenheim museum curator Edward F. Fry, who was an early champion of his work. Gunnarsson's paintings of the 1980s contrast with the more abstract style of many of his Icelandic contemporaries, including those of his close friend Olafur Eliasson, whose mentor he was. Initially inspired by the nation’s traditional artistic concern with nature and the human connection, Gunnarsson’s paintings in the 1980s show human and animal figures—and sometimes hybrids of the two—intertwined within the landscape. His expressionistic approach, deft brushwork and strong use of color demonstrate a master of figurative and spiritually charged painting. Eliason writes about his friend, "It was Gunnar’s ability to transform landscape forms, whether symbolic, metaphoric, or naturalistic, that taught me not only to see the world around me but to consider our movement through the landscape as an inseparable part of it." (2009)

Gunnarsson lived in Kambur, Iceland, in close contact with the landscape and wildlife that inspired his work so strongly. He represented his country at the Bienal de São Paulo in 1985, and at the Venice Biennale in 1988. His works may be found in public collections worldwide, including the Guggenheim Museum, New York, The National Gallery of Iceland, Reykjavik, The Seibu Museum, Tokyo, and The Moderna Museet and the National Gallery of Sweden, Stockholm. He also had solo exhibitions at Moeller Fine Art, New York in 1985 and 1989, and at Moeller Fine Art, Berlin in 2010.