exhibition here upon his í'eturn from Paris in 1938. The painter Jón Thorleifsson, who at that time was the art critic for Iceland’s largest newspaper, mor- gunblaðið, praised the exhibition and the artist for bringing new spirit into Icelandic art. The first completely abstract exhibition in Iceland was held by Svavar Guðnason in 1945. Svavar, who during the war lived in Denmark and was one of the founders of the well-known Copra group, exhibited his paintings here for the first time upon his return home. Jón Thorleifsson gave this exhibition an excellent write-up, but the general public was at a loss. What did the man mean? Was he making fun of them? During the war several young Icelanders studied painting in the United States, among them Krist- ján Davíðsson and Jóhannes Jóhannesson. Nína Tryggvadóttir was also in the United States during the war, where she painted and continued her studies. The re-establishment of the Republic of Iceland inspired a great wave of enthusiasm in the Icelandic nation to build up the country both in a material and a spiritual sense. Many Icelanders went abroad to study art, including Guðmunda Andrésdóttir, Karl Kvaran, Eiríkur Smith and Steinthór Sigurðsson. Now for the first time there was a hope of open- ing a National Gallery to the public. Some space in the building of the National Museum was made available for the purpose. That very building was the Icelandic people’s morning gift to its country in commemoration of the great event of 1944. Today, twenty years after the abstract exhibition of Svavar Guðnason, public opinion has changed. The National Gallery of Iceland was opened to the public in 1951. That in itself was of fundamental importance and altered matters entirely. Now for the first time in Iceland there are permanently on display some of the best and also often most recent paintings by Icelandic artists. In 1961 the National Gallery became in accordance with an act passed by the Althing (the Icelandic parliament) an inde- pendent institution, and since then it has been a vi- tal factor in Icelandic art life. Icelandic art of the twentieth century follows an international trend and is part of the modern movement of world art today. But it is unmistakably and indisputably a national art in the best sense of that term. Its color is that of Iceland, the color of the crispness of its clear atmosphere and northern light, and its glow is inspired by the erupting volcanoes. The spirit of this art is Icelandic, the spirit of the eddas and sagas and of the beauty and magnifi- cence of the country itself. SELMA JÓNSDÓTTIR PH D Director, National Gallery oj Iceland

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