REYKJAVÍK.- i8 Gallery announced The Mountain Within, an exhibition of historical paintings by Stéfan V. Jónsson, who is commonly known as Stórval. The exhibition is on view from 15 August until 5 October 2024. Stórval (1908-1994) is an important figure in Icelandic art who captured his native landscape in a signature frank style using colour-blocking. Particularly known for his paintings of Herðubreið, a revered mountain in the highlands of Iceland, Stórval became a household name and his landscapes were widely collected around the country. Stórval's first gallery exhibition was at Reykjavík's Gallery SÚM in 1972, an artist-run gallery founded by the SÚM group, which included Sigurður Guðmundsson, Kristján Guðmundsson and Hreinn Friðfinnson, all of whom are part of i8's program.

Stories circulate about a farmer who was a legend in his own lifetime. He was a countryman who was agile in movement, who roamed Reykjavik on a bicycle with a painting on the bike rack. A farmer in the city who mowed roundabouts, dressed in his best clothes with a pitchfork, rode a horse into a shop to ask for directions. A colourful personality, free from superficiality, reciting strange tales of animals and people in the Möðrudalsöræfi.

Öræfi was the promised land. The vastness, a trusted companion to be listened to – mountains, valleys, scree, and rocks – vividly recollected. Stefán from Möðrudal had come to the city, a spirit longing for the great mountains, which he could not return to. The stories of the mountains are now being forgotten one by one. But Stefán’s paintings continually evoke sensitive stories of life in the remote valleys while simultaneously bringing to the fore an image of an artist made in the city.

Creative thinking had a place in Stefán’s family. Inventiveness and rich storytelling heritage originated with his parents, and from them flowed the artistic talents that the farmer suddenly and unexpectedly felt as he arrived in the city and the urban landscape enveloped him. There, the artist emerged without an example; he exhibited his works under the open sky, on streets and squares, as artists did abroad, and played the accordion for passers-by. A farmer without livestock, a painter without a soulmate.

Stefán moved from the Eastfjords to Reykjavik in 1955 – then past middle age – leaving behind the countryside freedom and struggle. In the city, he worked various manual jobs while starting his artistic career in complete earnestness. Earnestness that was without hesitation or cessation. Painting became a way for him to express the emotions related to his life experiences in the mountains. His creative force was driven by his joy of storytelling. The joy and playfulness that marked his life in the city, where he was popular and active, constantly strolling around town.

Stefán’s first exhibition indoors was at Gallery SÚM in 1972. By then, he had held numerous outdoor exhibitions on squares, intersections, and against building walls in downtown Reykjavik since 1959. At Gallery SÚM, Stefán was in the company of artists who appreciated his sincerity and straightforward attitude towards art. The exhibition drew significant attention, discourse, and many visitors. The walls were covered with works from a prolonged period – Stefán had become Stórval.

He painted with conviction, sensitivity, and boisterousness. Visual narratives show waters, hills, farms, mountains, fjords, and bays. Then there were animals, mainly sheep and horses – alone or in herds, which Stefán dearly loved. The family also appeared – mother, love, and festivities. Speed was the primary measure of quality, and repetition showed his passion for the subject. The use of colour was direct, unrefined – the subject captured in a blink – and the materials were whatever was at hand.

Then there is Herðubreið, beautiful in form and varied. Similar but never the same – the mountain Stefán could never get enough of. He couldn’t grasp it – but it was the foundation of his creative force and existence. The mountain within. Unclimbable except in the mind, and according to Stefán – hollow inside. His Mont Sainte-Victoire, Mount Fuji – his private magic mountain.

Unnar Örn