The Provincialists is a group of artists who position themselves outside the world's metropolises and acknowledge their provinciality by giving the term a new meaning. The group sees it as a positive thing to live and work in the province, far from the big metropolises, such as Paris, New York and Milan. This ideology is based on the belief that the creative process is just as strong, if not stronger, in the fringe areas than in the metropolis. Such a 'reversal tactic' is well-known throughout the post-colonial part of the world. Rather than looking to the colonial power and its metropolitan culture, artists focus on their native contemporary culture, which is more or less influenced by the post-colonial situation, or they go back to the indigenous culture from pre-colonial times.

My contribution to the Provincialist discussion will be some ideas about how the development of the visual and literary arts in the Faroe Islands can be shown as two parallel movements. The basis for this theory is the fact that both art forms have close ties to the national movement and have been used actively in the efforts to capture the Faroese essence and define the Faroese nation. I believe that the national movement owes its success to literature and art, not least to the introduction of new art forms such as the lyrical poem and the landscape painting. In today's situation, however, art and literature are no longer concerned with building the nation.

Building the nation

At the turn of the 20th century, art and literature were important elements in the reorganisation and modernisation of the Faroe society and culture, a modernisation which was bound to happen regardless of the success of the national movement and its development from a protest movement to a mainstream organisation. The national movement was the ideology that people turned to when the Faroe economy and social structure underwent radical changes in the second half of the 19th century. One can ask whether the national identity had already developed, so that the arts merely portrayed what was already there, or whether it was the national movement that made the artistic products the national treasures we cherish today. The theory can be tested by trying to imagine that the new literature from the 1870s onwards was in Danish, and that, together with the pictorial art, it reflected the ongoing changes in working conditions, settlement patterns and other social factors. Is it possible to imagine art and literature depicting the Faroe Islands as a characteristic part of the Denmark that once incorporated Iceland, Greenland, the Faroes and Denmark? This subject can be found in the literature, but is usually secondary to the national aspect and the fight to promote the Faroese language. I will not pursue this non-factual idea any further. Instead, I will attempt to demonstrate how art and literature experienced a parallel development, and show how the two together reflect the evolution of the Faroese society throughout the 20th century.

The role of literature

The Faroese uniqueness is a result of the Faroese landscape and language. Moreover, it was the decision to strengthen the Faroese language and make it the national language of the Faroe Islands, that united the progressive forces in the 1870s and the following decades. The introduction of the lyrical poem, written in Faroese to old familiar tunes, is directly linked to this development. The new songs described the landscape - the mountains, the sea and the Faroese peoplei - and as such helped define the Faroese identity. Most of the written works produced in the Faroe Islands in the 20th century have in some way sought to create a national literature, a unique literature in Faroese. At the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st, this traditional nationalist viewpoint has faced opposition. Not directed at the Faroese as such - nobody doubts the existence of a Faroese nationality. The opposition is directed at the traditional conception of what it means to be Faroese and how the Faroese identity can grow and develop in the 21st century. The two brother poets J. H. O. Djurhuus and Hans A. Djurhuus made the Faroese language a medium for the arts, and shared the literary stage, so to speak. J. H. O. Djurhuus proved that Faroese was a modern cultural language through his scholarly, classical and symbolist poetry, while H. A. Djurhuus popularised the modern Faroese poetry.ii One of the main controversies in the effort to nationalise the Faroese language, was the church service. The church rituals had been performed in Danish since the days of the Reformation. In 1903 the church allowed parts of the service to be in Faroese, but it was not possible to perform a complete service in Faroese until the authorised hymn book and bible translation were published in 1960 and 1961. A large part of society's mental energy was put into the struggle to promote Faroese in the schools and the church.

The role of pictorial art

Along with the new written culture, a new form of pictorial art developed in the Faroe Islands, one whose roots I believe can be traced far back. "Pictorial art comes to the Faroe Islands" is the title of one of the chapters in Bárður Jákupsson's Myndlist i Føroyum (p. 41). It refers to the period after the Second World War when artists moved to the Faroe Islands to take part in the political struggle for Faroese independence. Jákupsson makes an even more interesting observation elsewhere in his book. He writes about Elizabeth Taylor (1856-1932), an American explorer and author, and Flora Heilmann (1872-1944), the Danish wife of a pastor, and states that "there is evidence that these two women contributed greatly to the birth of the Faroese landscape painting" (p. 13). It seems, then, that the individuals who made the Faroese painters turn their attention to the landscape, were themselves neither artists nor Faroese, but two female foreigners who travelled across the Islands in the period 1895-1914. This is an extremely interesting theory that should be further investigated. The central aspect, however, is that the birth of the Faroese landscape painting was a direct result of the introduction of a new art form. It developed from the autodidact naturalism via the academic expressionism, to the abstract expressionism we now know and cherish as The Faroese Art. The time at which landscape painting was introduced to the Faroe Islands strengthens my theory that it was the new art forms, i.e. the lyrical song and the landscape picture, which spearheaded the literary and artistic nationalisation that has been so important to the Islands. Just like the lyrical poem was a new literary form that entered the Faroese culture along with the students' national hymns from 1876, the landscape painting was a new art form which, together with the lyrical songs, would shape the conceptions of the Faroese identity.

Old and new

During the period of nationalisation around 1900, there were several attempts, both in literature and art, to unite the traditional with the new. There were the national hymns in the old ballad style, wood carvings and knit works in the churches, and a new style of wood carving. In this context, Jóannes Patursson is an interesting person. He was a poet, wood carver, farmer and politician. Reidar Djupedal has characterised Patursson as a Renaissance man,iii a politician who wanted to encompass everything: economy and politics, art and literature.
Some of Patursson's songs are written in ballad style to old ballad tunes, such as the poem "Nú er tann stundin komin til handa", which was recited at the famous "Christmas meeting" on Boxing Day 1888 and led to the founding of the Føringafelag a month later. This poem struck a chord with the population. It calls on the Faroese people to raise the nation, and was instrumental in starting the national movement. It was the spark that ignited the poet J. H. O. Djurhuus in his quest to establish Faroese as a language of culture. Patursson also worked within the modern lyrical song tradition. He further organised an extensive restoration of the farm estate at Kirkjubø, which had served as the country's cultural centre, with the episcopal residence and a Gothic cathedral. Patursson single-handedly reproduced an old portal at the east side of the house. The column heads and lintel had not been preserved, and Patursson therefore added these. The carved column heads depicted a ram on one side and a lion on the other.iv On the arch-shaped lintel Patursson made carvings which he "copied freely from the side member of the episcopal chair in the cathedral".v These wood carvings bear witness of a desire to give the estate a classical design - columns and lions - combined with Faroese heritage and symbols, represented by the rams and the carvings from the episcopal chair. Patursson has also carved the frame surrounding the portrait S. J. Mikines painted of him. The frame consists of four pieces with individual patterns, reminiscent of the Norwegian wood carving style. These attempts to modernise the wood carving tradition are strikingly different from the traditional Faroese style, and seem to stand alone in the world of Faroese art. Wood carving has not been fully accepted as an integral part of Faroese art, and Patursson's experiment shows that not all new art forms won acclaim. The landscape painting seems to have combined particularly well with the nationalist ideology.

 

Contemporary art

Throughout the 20th century there have been several intersections of art and literature, particularly after they were no longer preoccupied with defining the Faroese, but turned to other aesthetic and conceptual areas. The poet and painter William Heinesen made caricatures and eccentric landscape paintings which are far from the typical monumental and naturalistic style of Jógvan Waagstein and Sigmund Petersen.

At Ingálvur av Reyni's latest exhibition in 2000, which filled the entire art museum, many of the oil paintings and water colour drawings depicted poems by J. H. O. Djurhuus, with titles such as "Tigandi nærleiki" (Silent presence) and "Í hjómhvítum brúðarbúna" (In sea spray white wedding gown), alluding to a new edition of his collected poems released in 1988.vi

As an interesting parallel to this, Carl Jóhan Jensen's last poetry collection in the 20th century, Timar og rek (Time and signs, 1995), contains sonnets that describe expressionistic - mainly German - paintings. The two first and two last sonnets are devoted to a painting by S. J. Mikines, "Líkfylgi" (Funeral procession, 1951). In each poem a fly is added - one black, one yellow, one red and one blue - which is an expression of the extension and transformation of the painting that the poems represent. The art of Astri Luihn, who is the Faroese representative in the Provincialist group, shows a striking duality, where forms and expressions from the pre-expressionistic era of Faroese art combine freely with modern trends and styles.

A Faroese provincialist

Astri Luihn has long been preoccupied with folk art, as well as music, literature and painting. She has developed a characteristic technique which combines painting, linoleum carving and linoleum print. The exhibition Villini fuglar (Wild birds) which she held a few years ago, was based on the great ballad cycle Sjúrðar kvæði. Luihn transformed the birds on the bird rock into talking birds, which in the ballad tell the main character Sjúrður where he can find his bride. With the work "Guillemot Blues", exhibited at Den Frie Udstillingsbygning in Copenhagen last year, and the series "We don't all see things the same, right?", shown at the summer exhibition in the Nordic House in 2006, Luihn's technique has been further refined, and now includes canvas paintings and prints. She has also separated the pictorial elements, so that they emerge as freer and stronger. In one picture, some birds that are heavily stylised have left the flock and thereby draw the viewer's attention. Birds and scenes from various ballads are among Astri Luihn's favourite motives. Her writings are filled with broken-winged birds, songbirds and caged birds. The birds symbolise the life in the mountains as well as the talking bird from the ballads. The black and white surfaces of the paintings vibrate among the other elements: the blue area with the black print, and the stylised bird that resembles the wood carvings in the churches. Painting, wood carving and print all intersect in Astri Luihn's pictures, and create an intense unity which despite, or perhaps because of, the complex technique emerges with a simplicity which invokes the Faroese folk art that is so close to Luihn's heart. Astri Luihn thus bases her work on the provincial culture of which she forms a part, and at the same time develops her characteristic technique in order to achieve the artistic expression she seeks.

 

 

i Turið Sigurðadóttir "At rejse ud for at komme hjem". Master thesis, University of Copenhagen 1987.
ii Leyvoy Joensen "Atlantis, Bábylon, Tórshavn. The Djurhuus Brothers and William Heinesen in Faroese Literary History" in: Scandinavian Studies, Summer 2002, vol 74, no 2 (p. 181-204).
iii Reidar Djupedal "Jóannes Patursson. Eit hundreårsminne." Article in Gula Tidend 7. May 1966.
iv Jóannes Patursson Tættir úr Kirkjubøar søgu. Tórshavn 1966, p. 173f.
v Ibid. 174.
vi J. H. O. Djurhuus Yrkingar 1898-1948. Ed. Chr. Matras. Mentunargrunnur Studentafelagsins 1988.