On June 1st Tryggvasafn’s summer exhibition was opened at the Neskaupstaður Museum House. The exhibition is called “Stemmning” (e. mood) referring to the special mood many people experience while viewing works by Tryggvi Ólafsson. The museum will be open every day this summer at 13-17 until the end of August. People are encouraged to visit the Museum House and enjoy the art as well as the exhibition of the Museum of Natural History and the Jósafat Hinriksson’s Seafaring and Smithy Collection, which are also housed there.
Tryggvi Ólafsson’s Art Collections, often called Tryggvasafn, has about 400 works by the artist and a summer exhibition of his works is set up annually in the Museum. Tryggvasafn started operations in Neskaupstaður in 2001 and has grown steadily since then. In 2007, it was decided to make the museum a private institution to secure its foundation both financially and operationally. The founders of the non-profit organization were seven, both individuals and companies.
Tryggvi Ólafsson had an impressive career as an artist. He started to do art at home in Neskaupstaður but then went to Reykjavík and from there to Copenhagen where he studied at the Royal Academy of Arts. After completing his art studies, Tryggvi settled in Copenhagen, where he spent most of his artistic career.
Works by Tryggvi have been shown around the world and his art has attracted a lot of attention. Tryggvi always emphasized maintaining good relations with his old hometown in Iceland, and when people from Neskaupstaður passed through Copenhagen, they often stopped by the artist’s studio. In 2007 Tryggvi was badly injured and as a result he and his wife, Gerður Sigurðardóttir, moved to Iceland. Tryggvi continued to do his art and did lithographs. Tryggvi died on January 3, 2019.
The current exhibition has 52 works from the years 1954-1995. The oldest works since Tryggvi was starting to paint as a young boy in Neskaupstaður, but the youngest works give a picture of his art when it was fully formed. People are strongly encouraged to make their way to Neskaupstaður Museum House and experience the “Stemmning” created by Tryggvi Ólafsson’s artwork.
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