Hang­man's Rock - The Delirium of Vision

For about a quarter of a century the painter Jóhannes Kjarval frequented a secluded spot in the Garðahraun lava field north of Hafnarfjörður called Hangman’s Rock. There doesn’t seem to be anything unusual about this particular spot in the Icelandic lava fields, but despite this Kjarval created a large number of paintings there, which constitute the foundation of this exhibition on the Delirium of Vision.

The curator Ólafur Gíslason put this exhibition together to look for an answer to the question of what drew Kjarval to this site, what questions he presented to the rock, and why the rock evoked such varied manifestations on the artist’s canvases. The exhibition aims to shed new light on the phenomenology of visual perception, and how its paradoxes are echoed in the work of other Icelandic artists who are either directly or indirectly influenced by the visual philosophy of dissolving borders between external and internal reality that we find in Kjarval’s works.

Along with Kjarval, following artists exhibit their work: Finnur Jónsson, Svavar Guðnason, Jóhann Eyfells, Erró, Vilhjálmur Bergsson, Steina Vasulka, Kristján Guðmundsson, Hreinn Friðfinnsson, Jóhanna Kristín Yngvadóttir, Helgi Þorgils Friðjónsson, Ívar Valgarðsson, Erla Þórarinsdóttir, Halldór Ásgeirsson, Kristján Steingrímur Jónsson, Georg Guðni, Bjarni Sigurbjörnsson, Hekla Dögg Jónsdóttir, Margrét Blöndal, Egill Sæbjörnsson, Heimir Björgúlfsson and Sigurður Guðjónsson.