Kinna Poulsen
Listasavn Føroya – a new presentation
A terrible racket of knocking, drilling, and hammering disrupts the blissful peace that usually reigns in Viðarlundin (the plantation) in Tórshavn. Walking up there, we notice that the noise is coming from the old part of the Art Museum which is currently more or less dismantled while being rebuilt from the inside. The ducks in the pond couldn't care less—they waddle along at their usual pace and have already grown accustomed to the noise, because the old Listaskálin is a major construction site, but the Art Museum remains open.
Two years have passed since Solveig Hanusardóttir Olsen was appointed director of the National Gallery of the Faroe Islands (Listasavn Føroya), so the time has now come for her vision of a contemporary presentation of Faroese art to become a reality. And it can be said right away that this new exhibition is better than the previous one, which was curated by the former director of the Art Museum, Karina Lykke Grand. Back then, she managed to double the amount of exhibited works and increase the representation of female artists, which made many people happy as it brought something new to the museum context.
From this perspective here at Listaportalurin, however, the words were not kind regarding the odd categorization of Faroese art, which was presented under headings such as ocean, landscape, animals, portrait, body, etc.—it felt like an immensely simplified and essentially reductive filter placed over Faroese art history. The Art Museum is already limited enough both geographically and temporally, given that the museum exclusively displays Faroese visual art—after all, Faroese art history does not truly gain momentum until the 20th century. Furthermore, the museum is varying in quality. To someone who has visited virtually every art exhibition held around here over the last thirty years, it seems tragically clear that the best Faroese artworks from this century are not in the Art Museum, but mostly in the homes of private collectors. This applies to works by, for instance, Torbjørn Olsen, Zacharias Heinesen, Rannvá Kunoy, Marius Olsen, Hansina Iversen, and several others—part of the problem stems from the Art War (Listastríðið), when the acquisition of works from, for example, the (autumn exhibition) breakaways stopped. The Art Museum is also struggling with the problem of housing works that were never, and will never be, good enough to be exhibited there. None of this can be blamed on the current management or staff at the Gallery, but they could nevertheless update the website and throw the demeaning thematic interpretation of Faroese art history into the sea of oblivion where it belongs (and, in the same vein, replace the illustration labelled as textile, since Janus Kamban’s graphic work is obviously not textile).
In the new permanent exhibition at the Listasavn Føroya, the artist Sámal Joensen Mikines has his traditional, prominent position, which he has earned through his role as a founding figure – he alone occupies the entire first big room called “the first pyramid”, and his major work Back from the Funeral hangs where it should. I am not personally a fan of the nationalist/ethnic paintings depicting Faroese dancing and whaling, but they are not badly painted, and quality is of paramount importance when it comes to an institution as fundamental as the National art museum of the Faroe Islands.
To be honest, there is far too little awareness of artistic quality in many parts of Faroese society today. It is all too common to see poor works and copies presented as genuine art – even by galleries and institutions that ought to know better than to support what is, in reality, a form of theft. This happens, for example, when banks and other workplaces give gifts. Just this week, a woman who had worked at Føroya Banki for forty years was photographed with a painting that was quite clearly a copy of Hansina Iversen’s distinctive style.
There are fewer portraits in the new exhibition, but they are still hung more or less in the same manner as they were in a so-called salon-style hanging, which is amusing but does not give individual works by Ruth Smith, Tommy Arge and Torbjørn Olsen enough space. The overall level of quality, however, seems much better and more assured than it used to be in the permanent exhibition, where the artworks seem to be treated with interest, respect and care.
In the corridor, feminist perspectives are cautiously introduced through watercolours by the pioneering artist Bergithe Johannesen, as well as a charming little painting of buttercups by another female pioneer, Danish artist Flora Heilmann. This cautiousness may be a matter of temperament, but artistically the exhibition would have been more exciting if the juxtapositions had been a little bolder. One could, for example, have placed Flora Heilmann’s painting of buttercups right next to Mikines’s funeral painting and, through a dramatic leap in scale, challenged the traditional heroic, masculine narrative and introduced other perspectives.
The same applies to the graphic art further along the corridor, which is presented in a very traditional manner with printing plates by Elinborg Lützen. They are not necessary in order to understand what a fantastic artist she was – the space could instead have been used for artworks, perhaps a plaster sculpture by Jóhan Martin Christiansen?
Graphic art is still somewhat underrepresented at the National Gallery, considering all the outstanding works that have seen the light of day at Steinprent over the years. Of course, space at the art museum is quite limited, but still. There are two fine prints by Tóroddur Poulsen and a good 1990s work by Øssur Johannesen, and four new prints from Jóhan Martin Christiansen’s Jeppe Sleeping series have been allowed to spread out in the graphic-art corridor between older works by Janus Kamban and Hans Pauli Olsen.
When I experienced the exhibition in the spring, this section opened up new and more modern perspectives when Janus Kamban’s beautiful bust of Fraser Eysturoy was placed next to Jóhan Martin’s lovely sleeping Jeppe. Now Janus Kamban’s bust of Hans Pauli Olsen occupies that spot. It is a fine work, but it gives this part of the exhibition a different, heteronormative character. That is a shame, because the other perspective was more interesting and more progressive. I miss a freer, more playful and contemporary approach, in which juxtapositions of old and new works create new and surprising experiences. The only thing that comes as a unexpected combination is Alda Mohr Eyðunardóttir’s (b.1997) textile installation placed alongside Bárður Jákupsson’s (b.1943) mountain abstractions. It is somewhat amusing and brings out the natural qualities of Alda’s work and the abstract qualities of Bárður’s.
The pyramid of abstract paintings is exceptionally beautiful and strong, with very good works by Ingálvur av Reyni, Rannvá Kunoy, Hansina Iversen and Jens Dam Ziska. This works extremely well and is done with an awareness of the great progress abstract painting has made in the Faroe Islands during this century.
Unfortunately, the experience is partly disrupted by Ole Wich’s large sculpture 3D Dímun from 2009. It is a disadvantage for all the works. It is difficult to look at Hansina Iversen’s large Speaking in Tongues painting without parts of the sculpture intruding into your field of vision.
In the other pyramid, the exhibition feels somewhat airier now that Edward Fuglø’s large sound sculpture Whale-War has been removed, but Tróndur Patursson’s large paintings still look somewhat cramped – they really require space. And of course, it is no small challenge to make works by so many different artists function together. The current hanging of works by Anker Mortensen and Edward Fuglø is better: brighter, lighter and more poetic. Moving Edward Fuglø’s painting of a big guillemot egg out into the corridor gives the exhibition an unexpected quality when you look out from the pyramid. In the glass room overlooking the plantation, works by Guðrið Poulsen and Jón Sonni Jensen are placed in a setting that is very well thought through – perhaps too well thought through, because the works take on an almost interior-architectural quality. Deep in the corner hangs something by Tita Vinther, and far too little has been made of one of the key figures in Faroese art history. She should have been given much more space for her groundbreaking art, just as Ruth Smith has been given an entire room – and rightly so. Steffan Danielsen and Tommy Arge have likewise been given appropriate space, but where is Tommy Arge’s yellow painting View from Hoyvíksgarður (1975)? It is a major work that should always be on display at the National Gallery. The same applies to Grey Morning by Ingálvur av Reyni, although I believe that work is currently being restored, perhaps along with other works – including some by Ingálvur. His fine springtime interior is radiant in its newly restored state.
Contemporary art is, on the whole, well organised, with fine works by Hanna Bjartalíð, Silja Strøm, Randi Samsonsen and Jens Dam Ziska. Although the latter’s painting works exceptionally well in its company, it takes up disproportionately much space. Instead, a work such as Free Nature Description (1993) by Zacharias Heinesen could have hung there – another evergreen masterpiece in the National Gallery of the Faroe Islands. Randi Samsonsen’s crocheted sculpture When will you come to see you like I do? (2022) stands somewhat by itself and looks as though it has fallen down from the moon. This has something to do with its deliberately clumsy aesthetic, but I think a little more could have been made of its surroundings. Works like these, which are parts of an installation, are often conceived for a particular environment. These sculptures were originally exhibited at the supermarket Miklagarður in SMS. When the sculptures were later exhibited at the National Gallery, the walls were painted yellow. A yellow background could have worked well, perhaps with some of her knitted works hanging above it.
It was early in the spring that the National Gallery of the Faroe Islands invited visitors in to see the new permanent exhibition. I have been several times and experienced various changes, and when I visited the Gallery this week – now that autumn has properly arrived – I honestly expected to experience the exhibition in its finished form. But it is not quite finished, because labels and explanatory texts are missing. There is also a lack of information about the reorganisation on the website. Such things matter, because they say something about the direction and perspectives that are crucial when creating a new presentation and interpretation of the approximately 2,800 works of Faroese art in our national art collection. And no: there is not room for all of these works in the exhibition, far from it. That is precisely why the changing exhibitions present changing priorities, and those priorities say something important about our present time.
Kinna Poulsen
