Nína Tryggvadóttir (March 16, 1913 – June 18, 1968) was born Jónína Tryggvadóttir in

Seyðisfjörður Seyðisfjörður () is a town in the Eastern Region of Iceland at the innermost point of the fjord of the same name. The town is located in the municipality of Múlaþing. A road over Fjarðarheiði mountain pass (elevation ) connects Seyðisfjö ...

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

. She was one of Iceland's most important

abstract expressionist Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...

artists and one of very few Icelandic female artists of her generation.

Early life

Nína Tryggvadóttir was born on March 16, 1913, in

. In 1920 the family moved to Reykjavik. She studied art from

Ásgrímur Jónsson Ásgrímur Jónsson (March 4, 1876 – April 5, 1958) was an Icelandic painter, and one of the first in the country to make art a professional living. He studied at the Royal Academy in Copenhagen between 1900 and 1903 and traveled widely af ...

, a close relative on her father’s side. From 1933 to 1935 she also attended classes of Finnur Jonsson and Johann Briem. She moved to

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

in 1935 where she studied art at the

Royal Academy of Art The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its purpo ...

. After graduating from the Academy in 1939 she spent time studying in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

and was quite taken by the city.

Career

In 1942 she and her fellow artist

Louisa Matthíasdóttir Louisa Matthíasdóttir (February 20, 1917 – February 26, 2000) was an Icelandic- American painter. Louisa was born in Reykjavík. From 1925 to 1937 she grew up in the famous Höfði house since her family resided there. She showed artistic ab ...

moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

to study at the Art Students League of New York and develop her art further. There she took an active part in the city’s art scene. In 1949 she married Alfred L. Copley (alter ego: L. Alcopley). Later that year she went to

for a short visit. There she was informed that she was not able to return to the United States because she was suspected of being a Communist sympathizer. During her exile from the United States she lived in various places in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

being one of them. Copley joined her in

where they lived for a few years together with their daughter Una Dóra Copley, born 1951. During those years Nina kept making and practicing her art, exhibiting in many places and traveling through

. They returned to

in 1959 where Nína continued to work on her art and exhibiting mostly in

. During all her years abroad Nína kept exhibiting in

and was her input very valuable to the art society in

. Mainly working in

painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

she also did paper collage, stained glass work,

mosaic A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...

and more. She frequently based her compositions on nature where

ic landscape and the Nordic light played an important role.

Death

She died on June 18, 1968, in New York.

Legacy and recognition

In 2012, a crater on Mercury was named after Tryggvadóttir. In May 2018, the

Reykjavík City Council The City Council is the governing body of the City of Reykjavík, composed of representatives elected by the inhabitants of the city. The council Municipality is responsible for enforcing the issues which that the State has delegated to local aut ...

signed a declaration of intent between the city and couple Una Dóra Copley and Scott Jeffries to set up an art museum dedicated to Nína Tryggvadóttir. The couple donated their art collection to the city.

References

External links