15.05.1931–21.04.1989
Jón Gunnar Árnason
Jón Gunnar Árnason’s sculpture “Sólfar” (“Sun Voyager”) stands on the Reykjavík seafront, at the end of Frakkastígur street, and has long been one of the city’s landmarks. He trained first as an engineer and came back to the fine arts after the age of thirty. In 1972 he helped found the Icelandic Sculptors Society together with his colleagues.
Biography
Walk down Frakkastígur toward the water in Reykjavík and you run into “Sólfar”, a steel ship without sides or sails, set on the shore facing the sea. It is the best-known work of Jón Gunnar Árnason; the name is usually rendered in English as Sun Voyager.
He was born on 15 May 1931 in Reykjavík. From 1944 to 1946 he studied in Reykjavík, at a school of arts and crafts; its name is given in different ways in different descriptions, and which course he took is hard to check. Then he chose another road. In 1952, at twenty-one, he graduated from the Technical University of Reykjavik with a diploma in engineering; his specialty is described inconsistently, from engineering in general to mechanics. He became a sculptor later. In 1965–1967 Árnason studied fine art in London, at Hornsey College of Art, which later became part of Middlesex University. He was thirty-four then. To my mind, the engineering training shows in his best-known piece: “Sólfar” is put together like a construction, not modelled.
In 1972 Árnason took part in founding the Icelandic Sculptors Society in Reykjavík. Among the founders were also Hallsteinn Sigurðsson, Ragnar Kjartansson and Þorbjörg Pálsdóttir. Árnason remained a member of the society. His works were shown in galleries in Iceland, Norway, the Netherlands and Germany. Detailed information about the dates of exhibitions and about his other works is scarce, and I do not list anything here beyond “Sólfar”.
Jón Gunnar Árnason died on 21 April 1989, aged fifty-seven.
Profile notes