REYKJAVÍK.- When Erró began, in 1977, to make the series of works called One Thousand and One Nights, his idea was to put together 1001 visual works that he would then publish in a book.
The first major English-language monograph on Icelandic Pop artist Erró establishes his primacy among today’s significant figurative artists.
Each work was to be accompanied by a text by a writer. The project changed and the exhibition now shows paintings, collages and graphic works belonging to related series: One Thousand and One Nights (1977-1981), One Thousand and Three Nights (1982) and One Thousand and Three Nights (1984-1985), as well as the series Fractured Fairytales (1989-92).
Many people are familiar with the storyteller, Scheherazade, who had been sentenced to death bu survived by telling the sultan a story every night. She cut her stories in the middle of exciting chapters, leaving the continuation for the day after, and so her execution was constantly postponed. This is how the collection of stories was born, One Thousand and One Nights, with its thrilling, unexpected and surprising stories. Folktales, fairy tales, travelogues, romantic novels, war stories and fables make up this body of literature, drawn from Indian, Arabic, Persian, Egyptian and Hellenic heritage. It has been enriched with supplements over the centuries and has been very popular in Europe since the 18th century.
The works come from the Erró Collection in Reykjavík Art Museum and private collections in Iceland.
Erró’s Nights are not directly illustrations from One Thousand and One Nights, but similar subjects such as travel, love, war and violence appear in his works. However, some references to the Orient can be found through visual elements borrowed from Western paintings: Slaves and harems, lion hunt and scenes from the Bible. But for the most part, the images refer to modern times, the conquest of space, the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and imperial and colonial wars. These works are difficult to interpret. In them, Erró produces all kinds of approaches to mysterious and contradictory images, which confuse the viewer. Erró is true to himself, free and unprejudiced, and without preconceived ideas, he edits the mixed material of the media world and edits together works that have a powerful visual impact.
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