limits his works have followed a logical development towards softer form and increased movement. At the same time they are rather introspective and locked, acquiring an almost symbolic significance and religious content. They are never the result of external circumst- ances, but always the result of internal needs. Those changes through which his works have passed are never revolutionary, but rather one period leads to the next in a consistent manner. He works with the same idea in many pictures, repeats, changes, and thereby creates an ever- changing rhythm where nothing is redundant. Karl is an unusually demanding artist and continually criticizes his works. His art has continuously developed through experiment and discovery, and each victory has led to new assaults. However, he uses these discoveries to work over that which already exists, without making any really dramatic changes, in order to get to the inner core. The female form which could be seen first in his works around 1950, can be taken as an example. This form appears isolated and highly stylized in his works from around 1970, and again in his latest works, where he plays with repetition. These female forms appear singly or as several in a row, which then gradually merge into repetition, thereby creating an independent play of lines and rhythm on the surface of the painting. Each painting acquires internally a flow, or one painting leads to another like a variation on a theme in music. Karl listens to chamber music a good deal and it has often been pointed out that Concrete art, more than any other, comes closest to music by dint of its abstract nature. Halldór Björn Runólfsson pointed out this connection between chamber music and Karl’s art in an article about an exhibition of his in Reykjavík in 1984: For some reason one is reminded of music when standing in front of Karl’s works. It is not a symphonic composition with wind instruments, nor is it a lyrical solo. It is in the area of a well-composed piece of chamber music, something akin to Beethoven’s final quartettes.1 2 3 4 5 His works have integrated this interplay, rhythm, tempo and repetition, either internally between lines or areas of colour, or between individual works. They are related and yet independent. In this way an overall harmony is achieved. This is an unassuming art, yet the works do not leave the viewer unmoved, for this strictness of colour and form are insistent in a strangely demanding way. These elements in the art of Karl Kvaran make his pictures both compelling and imposing. BERA NORDAL 1) Dominique Viéville, “Vous avez dit géometrigue? Les Salon des Réalités nouvelles 1946-1957”, Paris Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris-Paris 1937-1957, 28. mai - 2 novembre 1981, pp. 270-289. 2) Þorvaldur Skúlason, “Nonfígúratív list”, Birtingur, 2. issue 1955, op. cit. p.6. 3) Björn Th. Björnsson, “Viðtal við Karl Kvaran”, Birtingur, 1. issue 1958, op. cit. p. 14. 4) Birtingur, 1958, op. cit. p. 15. Karl Kvaran told me that Boyesen had placed most emphasis on the totality and movement of the overall line. Eiríkur Smith also talked about his time spent in Rostrup Boyesen's school and also places emphasis on this element of his teaching. See Aðalsteinn Ingólfsson, Eirikur Smith, Reykjavík 1982, p.19. 5) Halldór Björn Runólfsson, “Hið fullkomna samræmi”, Þjóðviljinn, 1st September, 1984, op. cit. 23

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