Ragnar

Kjartansson
by : Sam Allard
Overview
● Background
● Art and Influence
● Influential Pieces
○ The Visitors
○ Scenes from Western Culture
○ Death is Elsewhere
Background
● Ragnar Kjartansson was born in 1976 to Kjartan Ragnarsson and
Guðrún Ásmundsdóttir
○ Ragnar’s mother Guðrún is an Icelandic actress and his Father
Kjartan is a playwright and director
● Kjartansson found his artistic roots in music as a young adult playing
for multiple bands including Trabant
○ Trabant is a band from Kjartansson’s hometown of Reykjavík,
Iceland
○ They are known for their raw and flamboyant live performances
● Kjartansson would go on to graduate from the Icelandic Academy of
the Arts in 2001
Ragnar Kjartansson
His Art and Influence
● Kjartansson engages in multiple different mediums as an artist
including music, drawings, performance art, and video installations
● He is well known for work in which he employs repetition over
sustained periods
● He has had pieces featured in galleries across the world including The
New Museum (NY), The Barbican Center (London), and The Palais de
Tokyo (Paris)
● In 2015, he won Artes Mundi’s Derek Williams Purchase Award
○ Selected over 5 other shortlisted artists
○ Received a permanent piece in the Cardiff National Museum
(Wales)
The Visitors
● This piece is a 64 minute, 9 screen video installation piece set based
around music and performance art
● Takes place in Rokeby, an aged 43 room mansion in Upstate New York
○ This house is still owned and operated by descendants of the Astor and Livingston
families
● For this piece, the family gathered on the terrace of the house while nine
Icelandic musicians each inhabited one a room in the house and played a
song that went “Once again, I fall into my feminine ways” repeatedly
● Named after Abba’s final album
● Shown in galleries across the world including San Francisco, New York,
and London
● Named the greatest piece of artwork of the 21st century by The Guardian
The
Visitors:
Scenes From Western Culture
● This series depicts idyllic representations of Western life
● It includes nine videos, or “cinematic paintings,” that present non-
narrative scenes
○ These include a couple dining at a New York restaurant, children playing in a garden in
Germany, a woman swimming in a private pool
● This piece was presented at the Luhring Augustine galleries in New York
● It was presented in conjunction with a series of oil paintings also done by
Kjartansson titled “Architecture and Morality”
○ These paintings were all completed in a two week period at the West Bank, Israel in
collaboration with the Center for Contemporary Art in Tel Aviv.
Scenes From Western Culture
● “Architecture and Morality”:

Video Example:
https://www.luhringaugustine.com/artists/ragnar-kjartansson/videos?view=slider#2
Death is Elsewhere
● This seven-channel video installation was on display at The MET from May
30 through September 2, 2019
● Death is Elsewhere is a performance-based piece in which a single song is
performed or a phrase is uttered, without beginning or end, in a nearly
continuous loop
● This installation features four musicians both male and female twins
● Within this 77-minute video they seem to encircle the viewer, in what
Kjartansson calls "symmetrical sculptures,"
● They move through a pastoral landscape while performing the title song
"Death Is Elsewhere."
Death is Elsewhere
Takeaways
● Ragnar Kjartansson is one of the most influential video installation artists
of the 21st century
● His extends among many mediums including music, video, painting, and
performance art
● His multi-medium, and repetitive style has made his pieces some of the
most recognized and noticeable among his genre
● At age 44 he still has many years of creating ahead and I to someday get
the chance to witness one of his exhibits in person
Citations
● “About Us.” Artes Mundi About Us Comments, www.artesmundi.org/en/about-us.
● Needham, Alex. “The Maddest House Party Ever – Ragnar Kjartansson on Making The Visitors.” The Guardian,
Guardian News and Media, 17 Sept. 2019, www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/sep/17/ragnar-
kjartansson-the-visitors-best-art-work-21st-century.
● “Ragnar Kjartansson, Death Is Elsewhere.” Metmuseum.org, 31 May 2019,
www.metmuseum.org/press/exhibitions/2019/ragnar-kjartansson-death-is-elsewhere-2019.
● “Ragnar Kjartansson.” Luhring Augustine, www.luhringaugustine.com/exhibitions/ragnar-kjartansson3.
● “Ragnar Kjartansson Wins The Derek Williams Trust Purchase Award.” Ragnar Kjartansson Wins The Derek
Williams Trust Purchase Award - Artes Mundi, 22 Jan. 2015, artesmundi.org/en/news/ragnar-kjartansson-wins-
the-derek-williams-trust-pruchase-award.
● “Ragnar Kjartansson: The Sky in a Room.” National Museum Wales, museum.wales/cardiff/whatson/9865/The-
Sky-in-a-Room-by-Ragnar-Kjartansson/.