ÍVAR VALGARDSSON
Research in colour
The blue colour of the sky. A blue ocean, blue grass, a blueish shade. A yellow sun, a daffodil, shafts of sunlight. Red fire, a fiery iris, a lighting. A yellow wall, a blue table, a red chair. Where, in the case of a painter, are the borders of the material reality of colour itself, the paint itself, on one hand and the words and ideas which each colour automatically evokes? Isn´t it inevitable that a person/artist must somehow transfer the way he experiences colours in nature to the way colours are used in his man-made environment and what they signify in that context? And what is the nature of the relationship between our experience of colours in nature and the way they are used in our everyday surroundings? These are some of the questions Ívar seeks to answer in his art, through an exploration of the characteristics and qualities of paint/colours and the words and ideas they signify. In this exhibition, Ívar draws the audience´s attention towards the way light, reflection and/or location and position command the way a colour appears to us and how we experience it. He also considers the way a bucketful of paint, if unmoved, forms different kinds of surfaces under different conditions, how paint flows when poured and how layered paint gradually becomes a three-dimensional art work. As for Ívar´s research of the connection between words and ideas and real, tangible surroundings, which we see as visible to the eye, I refer to the artist’s own words: “Can we picture the sun as the surface of a huge bucket of paint, pouring its yellow rays over the entire world?”, or “Is the ocean a patch of blue watercolour?“
Ívar´s art takes place within a defined, material space. It is born out of the surroundings it is presented in and at the same time, it adds to those same surroundings. When a work of art is hung on a wall, the wall becomes an integral part of the work, and vice versa. At the same time, Ívar´s works are a conversation with art history, with painting, sculpture, architecture, and evoke questions about the art tradition and the role of art. One of the questions that arise is whether art and life are one and the same, or whether art merely seeks to find resolutions on the premises of art. In Ívar´s case, there are no multiple choices; the answer to both questions is yes. Ívar´s art is based on his observations of our everyday surroundings – his works are of this world, but the resolutions they seek are based on their own premises.
-Text by Ragnheidur Hrafnkelsdóttir, January 2008 / Translation by Halla Sverrisdóttir
