Untitled

Eggert Pétursson studied at the Reykjavik School of Visual Art 1974–1978, The Icelandic Art Academy 1976–1979 and Jan Van Eyck Akademie in 1979–1981. Flora Islandica or the flora of Iceland has been the main subject of artist Eggert Pétursson since the early eighties. The painting is his media of looking at nature where he has found new dimensions and new use for the traditional canvas. Untitled shows a mass of Icelandic wildflower in clear and bright colour. The canvas is covered with flowers, leaving no empty space. The texture and brushwork, where meticulous attention is given to every detail, add life and three-dimensional effect to the two-dimensional plane without using the traditional methods of doing so. It seems as if a square from nature has been randomly cut out and painted. The painting appears to be without a beginning and endless as well, yet filled with information. One can study the painting over and over again with out ever seeing it the same way twice, just by looking at it from various distances. From afar the painting loses depth but when the spectator comes closer, it’s like looking at a different world full of life. The motif is one of the most common in art history, yet a worthy one. Here the flowers are left undisturbed on their own turf, so to speak, and bear no resemblance to still lifes of the past as the concept is quite different. The role of the spectator is to find – find the distance and proximity, quietness and sounds of nature.