Girl

Jóhanna Kristín Yngvadóttir made a memorable artistic debut in the early 1980s. Her contemporaries were captivated by her expressionistic works, and critics united in their praise of this young artist, who was seen as unusually mature and refined. In her art she interpreted an internal and external emotional world with sincerity, through strong brushstrokes and colour planes; she made unsparing use of dark tones and brought out diverse symbols in her powerful works. She said inter alia of her art:  “My subject is my interaction with people. People are what affects one most, they give rise to joy and sorrow.” Jóhanna Kristín graduated in 1976 from the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts, then pursued further studies in the Netherlands, at De Vrije Academie den Haag and Rijksakademie Van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam, graduating in 1980. Jóhanna Kristín Yngvadóttir’s career has few parallels in contemporary Icelandic art history: from the time of her first solo show at the Living Art Museum in 1983, her career lasted less than a decade, until her tragically early death in 1991.