Sigrid Valtingojer exhibition opening in LÁ museum today

Listasafn Árnesinga Art museum is located in a small town just south of Reykjavik called Hveragerði. Considering the size of the town the art museum is very ambitious and definitely worth the stop if you are passing through (which most do while visiting Iceland. It’s by the nr.1 ring road to South Iceland, on the path of the Golden Circle).

Today at 15:00 there is a new exhibition opening there on the art of Sigrid Valtingojer. A collaboration between the museum and ASÍ Art Museum.

Artist Sigrid Valtingojer was born in 1935 and when she died in 2013, she had bequeathed her entire body of work to the ASÍ Art Museum, about 300 pieces. One art work by Sigrid Valtingojer is registered in the collection of the LÁ Art Museum, which now has the opportunity to gather more information about her career and pass it on to visitors. Curator of the exhibition is the art historian and artist, Aðalheiður Valgeirsdóttir.

A former refugee

The exhibition presents a cosmopolitan artist in addition to the insight into different methods of printmaking that was Sigrid Valtingojer’s main medium. She was born in former Czechoslovakia, studied abroad and here in Iceland, exhibited widely and received international awards for her art.

As a child, at the end of World War II in 1945, Sigrid became a refugee with her family when their assets were confiscated and they were driven away from their home in Sudeten region of. They fled to the Thüringen region of Germany and finally settled in Jena that was then a Soviet territory. At the end of 1947 the family fled to West Germany. As adult Sigrid settled in Iceland in 1961 and here she left a legacy that is rooted in European culture.

The exhibition At Home will stand until June 5^th. The museum is open Thursdays - Sundays in April at 12-18 pm but daily after May 1^st. The labels and catalogue are in English as well as Icelandic and the access to the museum is free of charge.