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Ragnhildur Þóra Ágústsdóttir: Fögur fyrirheit
6 October, 2023–25 November, 2023
Í verkum sínum fangar Ragnhildur Þóra Ágústsdóttir blæbrigði vatnslitarins af einstakri nákvæmni og tilfinningu fyrir viðfangsefninu þar sem íslenskir fuglar eru í aðalhlutverki. Ragnhildur vinnur verk sín með vatnslitum, gouache og kaffi á pappír en vatnsliturinn er krefjandi miðill sem tekur langan tíma að ná tökum á. Í verkum Ragnhildar er örfínn pensillinn dreginn eftir pappírnum með ýtrustu nákvæmni þar sem engin mistök eru leyfð.
Fuglaverk Ragnhildar eiga sér fáar hliðstæður í samtímanum og segja má að þau stingi í stúf við flest það sem er að gerast í listheiminum í dag. Í verkum Ragnhildar felst ákveðið endurlit á fortíðinni og fagurfræði hennar þar sem hún sækir viðfangsefni og aðferð til náttúruvísinda- og listamanna 19. aldar og má þar helst nefna fuglamyndir náttúrufræðingsins, teiknarans og skáldsins Benedikts Gröndal (1826-1907) og enska fuglafræðingsins John Gould (1804-1881).
Þótt Ragnhildur endurveki forn viðfangsefni með fuglamyndum sínum og skipi sér í hóp þeirra fjölmörgu sem frá aldaöðli hafa málað fugla, eiga verkin ekki síður sterkar rætur í íslenskri menningarsögu. Fuglar í verkum Ragnhildar hafa yfirbragð þjóðartáknsins og eiga það sameiginlegt að hafa með einhverjum hætti verið einkennisfuglar Íslands og eiga sér fastan sess í íslenskri alþýðumenningu og þjóðtrú.
Fálkinn tengist þjóðernisbaráttu Íslendinga og var um tíma þjóðartákn Íslands. Með Konungsúrskurði frá 3. október 1903 var ákveðið að skjaldarmerki Íslands skyldi vera “hvítur fálki með bláum grunni”. Hinn svipmikli og tígurlegi fálki sem birtist með endurteknum hætti í sýningarrýminu er byggður á fálka skjaldarmerkisins. Talið er að fálkamerkið eigi enn dýpri rætur í íslenskri menningarsögu, eða allt aftur til skjaldarmerkis Lopts ríka Guttormssonar (1375-1432) sem var íslenskur höfðingi, sýslumaður, hirðstjóri og riddari á 15. öld. Fálkamerkið má sjá víða í almannarýminu og var um tíma yfir dyrum alþingishússins og er enn yfir dyrum Safnahússins við Hverfisgötu.
Ragnhildur Þóra Ágústsdóttir (f. 1976) er fædd og uppalin í Stykkishólmi en býr nú og starfar á Seltjarnarnesi. Hún útskrifaðist frá Roger Williams University í Bandaríkjunum árið 2002. Verk Ragnhildar eru eintaklega nákvæm og fínleg en viðfangsefni hennar eru náttúrumyndir þar sem íslenskir fuglar eru í lykilhlutverki.
Ragnhildur Þóra Ágústsdóttir captures the nuances of watercolor with an exceptional precision and feeling for subject matter. Icelandic birds play a central role in her works. Ragnhildur paints with watercolors, gouache and coffee on paper. Watercolor is a demanding medium that takes a long time to master – in Ragnhildur´s work, very fine brushstrokes are drawn along the paper with the utmost attention, where no mistakes are afforded.
Ragnhildur’s bird paintings have few contemporary parallels and it can be said that they are at odds with most of what is happening in the art world today. In her work there is a certain retrospection and attention to the past and its aesthetics, as she draws subjects and methods from natural scientists and artists of the 19th century. More specifically, Ragnhildur draws influence from bird portraits of the naturalist, illustrator and poet Benedikt Gröndal (1826-1907) and the English ornithologist John Gould (1804-1881).
Although Ragnhildur revives ancient subjects with her bird paintings and is amongst the company of many artists who have painted birds for centuries, her works have no less strong roots in Icelandic cultural history. Birds in Ragnhildur´s work have the appearance of a national symbol, striking a chord with the steadfast prevalence of certain signature birds in Icelandic folk culture and folklore.
In particular, the falcon is associated with the national struggle of Icelanders and was for a time the national symbol of Iceland. By Royal Decree from October 3, 1903, it was determined that Iceland’s coat of arms should be a “white falcon with a blue base”. The expressive and majestic falcon that appears repeatedly in Ragnhildur´s exhibition is an exact replica of this coat of arms. It is believed that the falcon symbol has even deeper roots in Icelandic cultural history, tracing all the way back to the coat of arms of Lopt “The Rich” Guttormsson (1375-1432), who was an Icelandic ruler, magistrate, courtier and knight in the 15th century. The falcon symbol can be seen in many places in public spaces – for a time it held a place on the building of the National Parliament, and can still today be seen on the building of the National Gallery on Hverfisgata.
The Icelandic sagas contain many stories about the birds Ragnhildur paints, for example the legend about the evil red that appears in Árni Jónsson’s saga, where a vulture is involved. However, the most famous example of birds in the Icelandic sagas can be found in the story of the last vulture in Iceland, which was killed on June 4, 1844 in Eldey by Icelandic fishermen for natural artifact collectors in Denmark. There is some folklore connected to the falcon, as the bird was believed to give people an indication of fish in the sea. The falcon was also considered a forecaster of the weather, and people would use the bird’s flight or manner to guess the coming weather. The Himbrimi bird is mentioned in folklore as a weather forecasting tool and has been named the signature bird of the Þingvellir national park.
The spirit of the past hovers over Ragnhildur’s work, and she does not shy away from reviving subjects of the past when naturalists and artists began to explore and document nature. Although the works primarily focus on the artist’s delicate and reverent interpretation of its bird subject, they also call for the viewer’s cultural literacy, as well as a reminder of the fragile state of the ecosystem of the precarious nature of some birds on the verge of extinction.
Text by Vigdís Rún Jónsdóttir, Art historian
