From November 6 to December 6, the David Findlay Jr. Gallery will feature a retrospective of Nina Tryggvadóttir (1913-1968), one of Iceland’s most important abstract expressionist artists and one of very few internationally noted female artists of her generation. Nearly 50 years after her death, 24 of Nina’s works will be on display to inspire a new generation of artists and collectors.
An accomplished schoolgirl artist in Iceland, Nina went on to study at the prestigious Royal Academy of Art in Copenhagen and then traveled to Paris and New York where she learned from and worked with some of the most famous and groundbreaking artists of the time.
She had her first solo exhibition at the New Art Circle Gallery in 1945, and had established herself as a notable abstract artist in the New York art scene by 1949. Unfortunately, later that year, Nina ”became an unjustified and unsubstantiated target of Senator Joseph McCarthy’s anti-communist witch-hunt,” writes Una Dora Copley, Nina’s daughter. Nina was forced to leave the country, but and quickly became a central part of the Paris and London art scenes. At this point in time, Nina ‘s work was inspired by the destruction of and efforts to rebuild post-war Europe.
The United States allowed Nina to return to New York in 1959 and her paintings became more atmospheric, and received numerous important commissions for murals and stained glass windows in Iceland and elsewhere in Europe, which she accomplished to great acclaim.
Nina fell ill and tragically died in New York in 1968, but left behind a vast and impressive collection of works which include paintings, collage, abstract stained glass windows, mosaic murals, stage and set designers, textile designs, portraits and even a few children’s books. Visit the David Findlay Jr. Gallery this month to experience Nina’s breathtaking abstractions firsthand.
What: Nina Tryggvadóttir: A Retrospective
Where: David Findlay Jr. Gallery | 724 Fifth Avenue | New York, NY | 10019
When: November 6 – December 6, 2014 | 10:00AM – 5:30PM
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