Greens in Jóhann Briem Paintings

Greens in Jóhann Briem Paintings
A visual essay on green and Icelandic artist Jóhann Briem's (1907-1991) painted greens using his oil paints.

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Börn að leik / Children Playing
Laugarnesskóli / Laugarnes School, Grades 1-6
For many years, Jóhann was a drawing teacher at Gagnfræðaskóli Reykjavíkur, later Gagnfræðaskóli Vesturbæjar, as well as the elementary school, Laugarnesskóli, where this painting of children playing hangs today.

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Þrjár kusur
Oil on canvas, 37" x 35" (w x h)
Gallerí Fold 12/20/2019 auction: 3,510,000 ISK

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As early as 1936, Jóhann Briem created a solid, personal style with substantial, harmonious colors, where color dominates rather than drawing.

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Jóhann took his subject matter from Icelandic rural culture and human life, focusing on the countryside, animals, humans in front of nature, and tales.

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His colors got stronger, the shapes distinguished by his emphasizing the colors.

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Liggjandi kálfur / Lying calf
37" x 37" (w x h), 1965,
Listasafni Íslands / National Gallery of Iceland
Gift of the artist

Jóhann first studied art with the brother of noted painter Ásgrímur Jónsson, painter Jón Jónsson. In 1929 he went to Germany, where many Icelanders studied art at this time. Foreign currency was in demand in Germany. People survived on little.

Jóhann stayed in Dresden until 1934, where he married his first wife. He studied at the Akademie Simonson-Castelli and then at the Staatliche Kunstakademie. He developed poetic expressionism, combining a warm color scheme, simple imagery and a vivid brushstroke in images, his subject often of animals and people in nature.

When he returned home, Jóhann taught art, first at a private school he ran with Finnur Jónsson from 1934 to 1940.

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Tré í grænni brekku / Trees on a Green Slope
Oil on canvas, 28" x 22" (w x h), 1960
Reykjavik Art Museum

A retrospective exhibition of his work was held at the National Gallery of Iceland in 1977 on his 70th birthday.

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Gallerí Fold 12/19/2016 auction

In his human and animal images, he often appeals to the experience of lonely creatures facing nature.

Bibliography: Article in the Icelandic March 8, 2007 newspaper Visir.