The Story
Wonderful poster featuring Ragnar Kjartansson's The End (red stripes) - published by Denmark's Louisiana Museum for their 2023 solo exhibition with Kjartansson, Epic Waste of Love and Understanding.
Kjartansson has long since distinguished himself internationally as one of contemporary art's most important voices. The motif here comes from Kjartansson's international breakthrough work, The End – Venice, 2009. The work consists of 144 portraits of a young man in Speedo swimming trunks, which Kjartansson painted during a six-month performance for the Venice Biennale in 2009, where he represented Iceland.
In the wake of the severe collapse of the Icelandic economy in 2008, the work became a counter-image to capitalism's heady, masculine performance culture. Two young men in their prime spent half a year hanging out, drinking beer, smoking cigarettes, listening to music, reading, playing the guitar.
Kjartansson tested the romantic matrix of a male painting genius, painting every day a picture of the undressed model, friend and visual artist, Páll Haukur Björnsson (b. 1981).
Kjartansson's emotional and political commitment to the world is reflected in the works. They contain his loving, humorous and critical dialogue with Western culture – our self-understanding, successes, clichés, failures, melancholy, confusion, hope and absurdities. Nuanced reflections on masculinity appear in both work and exhibition in a thematic range from existential pain to aggressive world politics, which also includes the Danish colonialization of the artist's homeland, Iceland.
The works oscillate ambiguously between existential and political seriousness and poppy lightness. With Kjartansson, you'll be laughing and crying. The tension between tragedy and comedy is the artist's signature.
Approximate dimensions: 42 x 59.4 cm
Please hang away from direct sunlight to prevent fading. We send posters rolled in tubes.
Details & Craftsmanship
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Description
Wonderful poster featuring Ragnar Kjartansson's The End (red stripes) - published by Denmark's Louisiana Museum for their 2023 solo exhibition with Kjartansson, Epic Waste of Love and Understanding.
Kjartansson has long since distinguished himself internationally as one of contemporary art's most important voices. The motif here comes from Kjartansson's international breakthrough work, The End – Venice, 2009. The work consists of 144 portraits of a young man in Speedo swimming trunks, which Kjartansson painted during a six-month performance for the Venice Biennale in 2009, where he represented Iceland.
In the wake of the severe collapse of the Icelandic economy in 2008, the work became a counter-image to capitalism's heady, masculine performance culture. Two young men in their prime spent half a year hanging out, drinking beer, smoking cigarettes, listening to music, reading, playing the guitar.
Kjartansson tested the romantic matrix of a male painting genius, painting every day a picture of the undressed model, friend and visual artist, Páll Haukur Björnsson (b. 1981).
Kjartansson's emotional and political commitment to the world is reflected in the works. They contain his loving, humorous and critical dialogue with Western culture – our self-understanding, successes, clichés, failures, melancholy, confusion, hope and absurdities. Nuanced reflections on masculinity appear in both work and exhibition in a thematic range from existential pain to aggressive world politics, which also includes the Danish colonialization of the artist's homeland, Iceland.
The works oscillate ambiguously between existential and political seriousness and poppy lightness. With Kjartansson, you'll be laughing and crying. The tension between tragedy and comedy is the artist's signature.
Approximate dimensions: 42 x 59.4 cm
Please hang away from direct sunlight to prevent fading. We send posters rolled in tubes.
