An Exhibition in the Reykjavík Art Museum:
Two Icelandic Artists and their New York Friends from the 1940s
Jón Proppé
Nína Tryggvadóttir (1913-1968) and Louisa Matthíasdóttir (1917-2000) were among the most prominent women artists of their generation in Iceland though both spent much of their career abroad. Both studied in Copenhagen in the 1930’s but first met in Paris in 1939. They returned to Iceland on the eve of World War II and worked closely together in Reykjavík from 1939 until 1943 when they decided to go to New York to continue their studies. Both of them began studies with Hans Hofmann (1880-1966), an immigrant from Germany who had lived in Paris from 1903 to 1914 and was one of the most influential art teachers of the time. Many of his students were also to become influential artists and formed an important part of the avant-garde in New York in the 1940s and 1950s. They included Nell Blaine (1922-1996), Robert De Niro sr. (1922-1993) and Jane Freilicher (1924).
Louisa joined the The Jane Street Gallery in Greenwich Village, a cooperative artist-run gallery that operated from 1943 to 1949. Among the other members were Nell Blaine, Robert De Niro sr., Jane Freilicher and Leland Bell (1922-1991), Louisa’s husband. She never returned to Iceland except for short visits but in the 1960s she began to paint the scenes from Iceland that are undoubtedly her best-known works.
Nína studied only briefly with Hofmann, continuing her studies with Hans Richter (1888-1976) and Morris Kantor (1896-1974), but she remained in contact with the group of Hoffmann’s students. Like Louisa, she married in the United States. Her husband was Alfred L. Copley, a medical scientist from Germany who had immigrated to the United States in 1937, gradually leaned more and more towards the arts and began exhibiting his work in New York in 1946 under the name Alcopley. They met in 1945 when Nína exhibited in J.B. Neumann’s gallery, the New Art Circle, a show that also brought her into contact with many of the city’s most influential artist’s and critics, such as the de Koonings, Kline, Alexander Calder, Clement Greenberg, Alfred J. Barr and Leo Castelli. Alfred and Nína were married in 1949 and seemed set to make their career in New York when politics intervened. Returning from a visit to Iceland she was refused entry to the United States on the grounds that she was suspected of being a communist sympathiser, this even though she was already married to an American citizen. Alfred gave up his work with the U.S. Atomic Commission and, after a brief period in Iceland, they settled in Paris. They did not return to the United States until late 1959. Despite these setbacks, Nína had a long and successful career in Iceland, Paris and New York. She and Louisa remained life-long friends.
This connection between Icelandic art and the influential art scene of New York in the 1940s is explored in an extensive new exhibition in the Reykjavík Art Museum. In a period when most Icelandic artist looked to Paris and the developing abstract geometrical style, these two women made a career in the city which many now see as having replaced Paris as the centre of innovation in art after the war. In the images accompanying this article some aspects of this connection can be explored further.
Louisa joined the The Jane Street Gallery in Greenwich Village, a cooperative artist-run gallery that operated from 1943 to 1949. Among the other members were Nell Blaine, Robert De Niro sr., Jane Freilicher and Leland Bell (1922-1991), Louisa’s husband. She never returned to Iceland except for short visits but in the 1960s she began to paint the scenes from Iceland that are undoubtedly her best-known works.
Nína studied only briefly with Hofmann, continuing her studies with Hans Richter (1888-1976) and Morris Kantor (1896-1974), but she remained in contact with the group of Hoffmann’s students. Like Louisa, she married in the United States. Her husband was Alfred L. Copley, a medical scientist from Germany who had immigrated to the United States in 1937, gradually leaned more and more towards the arts and began exhibiting his work in New York in 1946 under the name Alcopley. They met in 1945 when Nína exhibited in J.B. Neumann’s gallery, the New Art Circle, a show that also brought her into contact with many of the city’s most influential artist’s and critics, such as the de Koonings, Kline, Alexander Calder, Clement Greenberg, Alfred J. Barr and Leo Castelli. Alfred and Nína were married in 1949 and seemed set to make their career in New York when politics intervened. Returning from a visit to Iceland she was refused entry to the United States on the grounds that she was suspected of being a communist sympathiser, this even though she was already married to an American citizen. Alfred gave up his work with the U.S. Atomic Commission and, after a brief period in Iceland, they settled in Paris. They did not return to the United States until late 1959. Despite these setbacks, Nína had a long and successful career in Iceland, Paris and New York. She and Louisa remained life-long friends.
This connection between Icelandic art and the influential art scene of New York in the 1940s is explored in an extensive new exhibition in the Reykjavík Art Museum. In a period when most Icelandic artist looked to Paris and the developing abstract geometrical style, these two women made a career in the city which many now see as having replaced Paris as the centre of innovation in art after the war. In the images accompanying this article some aspects of this connection can be explored further.
List: Icelandic Art News is published by the Center for Icelandic Art, a cooperative project of Iceland's museums and artists' organisations. List is edited by Christian Schoen and Jón Proppé. If you wish not to receive announcements of our new issues - or you want to contact us for any other reason - please send a mail to list@cia.is.
