with its ability to create space. This is precisely one of the fundamental tenets of Concretism. In the early fifties a “Mondrian” type palette appears and strong colours related to Pop art reappear in his works between 1970-80. In his gouache paintings he uses considerably softer and more poetic colour tones. In his most recent pictures he strips the canvas of nearly all colours except white, black and blue; Karl has remained true to these three colours throughout his career. Blue appears to receive an almost symbolic significance in his paintings. In these works only the line remains, simple and strong, and it is used either to create rings, wide and mighty forms, or organic strips which create a varying interaction of lines which extend over the canvas. Much of this Karl had already experimented extensively with in his pen and ink pictures, where the black line was expanded and tested to the limit on a white surface with respect to movement and space. When Karl had thus confined himself almost exclusively to black and white and the composition had become the most important factor, his oils became large and powerful drawings and there can be no doubts that the drawing is the foundation. Unlike many lcelandic artists of his generation, his oils are unusually large. A common size of his paintings post 1970 is 140 x 180 cm. This size is even more demanding on composition. These works need breathing space. Despite the fact that Karl based his works on forms and their internal interaction with colour in the true spirit of Concretism, in the background an experience of nature can be discerned, particularly in his gouache pictures, and indeed this is reflected in the titles of many of his works e.g. Autumn (Haust), Winter (Vetur), Autumn Night’s Shadows (Haustnæturskuggar) etc. It could be said that in his gouache pictures, the poetic in the works of Richard Mortensen and also poetic abstraction with its strong corollaries in nature, have managed to slightly release the fixed form. In Karl’s recent works and also in several gouache pictures from the sixties an older colour which has been painted over can often be glimpsed, and forms which have portions added or deleted can be seen. This gives the painting an unexpected life and a certain movement. This results from Karl’s method of painting directly onto the canvas in oils, changing the paintings continually as he works as though dealing with a series of sketches, despite the size of the canvas. Such a technique is completely contrary to how he works with colour in space and those logical principles which appear to lie at the roots of his work. It is much more in the spirit of Expressionistic techniques where such direct and uncensored expression is the rule and the result can always come as a surprise. However the gouache paintings which Karl worked on over a period of approximately 20 years, had to be done quickly and thus any changes at a later date were unthinkable. Therefore Karl practised this method and disciplined himself very strictly in its use. III If an overall perspective of Karl Kvaran’s career is taken, it is obvious that he has confined his art within very narrow limits and such a narrow path is not easily negotiated, but within these 22

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