The Samúel Jónsson Art Museum in the Westfjords, a museum dedicated to the life and work of its namesake, is raising funds to build a visitor center, mbl.is reports.
Born in 1884, Samúel was a sculptor and architect in the so-called naïve or outsider art tradition. In his forties, Samúel and his wife moved to remote Selárdalur, or ‘Seal River Valley,’ not far from the village of Bildudalur. There he built a house, created his own personal sculpture garden filled with giant, colorful people, seals, and horses, and even constructed a church with an onion dome. But although his artwork has always attracted a number of fascinated visitors, he has not received wide recognition for his work and no formal visitor center or museum has been erected at the site of his former home.
According to the Karolina Fund page, “The Association of the Samuel Art Museum has been in operation for 20 years, but the restoration work began in 2005 when a deal was concluded with the ministry and now there have been covered around 5,800 working hours on the site. In the summer of 2005, Gerhard König restored the lion fountain and since then there have been six working camps at Brautarholt and volunteers have been of thirteen nationalities.”
For more information on Samúel’s life and work, see here. You can also contribute to the Karolina Fund campaign, which has two weeks of fundraising remaining, here.
