NINA TRYGGVADOTTIR Abstractions: Construction and Deconstruction

David Richard Gallery presents the gallery’s second solo exhibition for Icelandic artist Nina Tryggvadottir, who lived in New York and was one of the few women and an original member of the New York School. The presentation, Abstractions: Construction and Deconstruction, focuses on a selection of eleven mixed media collages created from 1950 through 1958 that combined myriad artist, household, office, packing and construction papers with black ink. While the artist considered each collage a stand-alone work of art, one enamel painting on panel is included to demonstrate how much she enjoyed working in both paper and enamel paint and especially with the collaged geometric imagery of which she was so fond.

The exhibition, Abstractions: Construction and Deconstruction, will be on view February 17 through March 12, 2021 at David Richard Gallery located at 211 East 121 Street, New York, New York 10035, P: 212-882-1705 and everyone can interact and participate in the exhibition in several different ways: 1) in person and safely socially distanced while wearing a face covering; 2) privately by appointment; and 3) online at the following link: https://www.davidrichardgallery.com/exhibit/532-nina-tryggvadottir to view the digital catalog, 360 degree video and installation images.

About the Exhibition and Collages:

The eleven collages in this presentation fall into distinct aesthetic groups. The smallest group produced during 1957 and 1958 is comprised of blocky shapes, overlapping and laid on colored paper with two distinguishing characteristics. First, the shapes were created by tearing various papers and materials by hand, including construction, tissue and tracing papers as well as insulated and waxed papers, each producing rough and uneven perimeters that revealed layers of color and texture along the torn edges—especially from the complexly layered construction papers and packing materials. Second, the color palette is muted and neutral with sage green, tan, ivory and brown colors with contrast provided by additions of black incorporated into the compositions or a black ground for one artwork. The works on whole have a serene and subdued quality, evocative of the quiet Icelandic landscapes, which was a constant source of influence on and inspiration for Tryggvadottir’s abstract constructions and paintings. The hand-torn papers with their soft edges and organic shapes in earthy colors against peaceful quiet atmospheric grounds suggest a vast and wide countryside against an open clear sky.    

The largest group of collages in the presentation was produced from 1950 to 1952. They are very abstract with geometric shapes and vibrant color palettes and a generous use of black ink to provide internal contrasts and dynamic compositions. This grouping also falls into 2 distinct aesthetic categories. Two of the works produced in 1952 have asymmetric compositions that span from edge to edge comprised of rectilinear and curvilinear shapes interspersed with open grounds and negative space. The remaining five collages, one produced in 1950 and the rest in 1952, are dominated by open geometric and asymmetric grid-like structures produced with black ink and vibrant yellow, orange, green, red and soft lavender colors—from collaged paper elements beneath the paint—peeking through the openings in the grids and all of which is laid on soft sage green and brown or amber grounds. Tryggvadottir thought of these constructions as “landscapes”, but really more “cityscapes” as she interprets the black ink grids as roof lines and apparently exposed rafters during their construction when light and color can be seen between the angled wooden boards. In her words,  the overpainted structures on the collages are, “a black grid that is reminiscent of the frames of houses being built, this gives the works a distinguishing depth and distance”. The net effect is the open grid of black ink provides an illusory dimensional depth to the collages, especially when combined with the forward pull of the warmer and vibrant colors against the receding push of the neutral and cooler ground colors. The artist’s color choices of the sage green on the top portion of the compositions with the amber and brown colors on the lower portions created, de facto, not only a horizon line, but implied the sky and earth, respectively. Yet at a first, and second, glance the compositions read primarily as pure geometric abstractions that seem very contemporary and vibrant still today.