Kristján Guðmundsson (born 1941,

Snæfellsnes The Snæfellsnes () is a peninsula situated to the west of Borgarfjörður, in western Iceland. The peninsula has a volcanic origin having the Snæfellsnes volcanic belt down its centre, and the Snæfellsjökull volcano A volcano is com ...

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

) is a contemporary

ic conceptual artist. He started his career as an artist in the 1960s as a member of ''SÚM'' - a group of young artists influenced by then-new currents in conceptual and installation art. He lived in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

in the 1970s where he received a Dutch stipend. There he came into more direct contact with the international avant-garde. In 1977, he was one of four Icelanders invited to exhibit in the new-opened

Centre Georges Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...

in Paris, France. He moved back to Iceland in 1979. Kristján's art reflects both prevailing traditions in late 20th century western art in general, and the dominance of abstract and conceptual art in the post-war art of Iceland in particular. He has said, "I am trying to work within the field of tension that exists between nothing and something". In 1982 he represented Iceland at the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

. 1993 he was one of three winners of the Prince Eugen Medal conferred by the King of Sweden. In 2010 he was the first Icelandic winner who got the Swedish

Carnegie Art Award The Carnegie Art Award was a Swedish art award event established in 1998 by Swedish financial group Carnegie Investment Bank to recognize and promote Nordic contemporary painting and artists. With a total prize sum of SEK 2.1m, the Carnegie Ar ...

, worth SEK 1,000,000. He got it with his sound-absorbing pieces. Kristján is the brother of artist Sigurður Guðmundssson.

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representing gallery
Living people Kristjan Gudmundsson Kristjan Gudmundsson Kristjan Gudmundsson Conceptual artists Installation artists Kristjan Gudmundsson Recipients of the Prince Eugen Medal 1941 births {{Europe-artist-stub

See also

References

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