ArtistFaroeseb.1944
Tróndur Patursson
4 active items
Tróndur Patursson was born on 1 March 1944 as one of twin boys in Kirkjubøur, a small village on the southwestern tip of the Faroe Islands with roots going back to Norse settlement and medieval bishop's farms. The circumstances of his birth quietly shaped his path: under the inheritance rules of the time, the eldest twin would inherit the family farm, leaving Tróndur free to leave and pursue his own course. He trained as a sculptor in Norway, though over the following decades he expanded far beyond that single discipline.
Patursson became one of the most versatile artists to emerge from the Faroe Islands, working across painting, printmaking, sculpture, and - perhaps most distinctively - glass. He developed a personal visual language built around the North Atlantic world he grew up in: seabirds, ocean light, the silhouettes of cliffs and storms, and the older mythological figures of Faroese oral tradition. His approach to composition grew more abstract over time, though the natural world remained the constant source.
He is also known for a life that has extended well beyond the studio. In 1976, he joined explorer Tim Severin on part of the transatlantic voyage in the Brendan, a replica of a 6th-century leather-hulled currach, stepping in for a crew member when the vessel reached the Faroe Islands. Further sea expeditions in the 1980s and 1990s added to a biography that has always combined artistic practice with physical adventure.
His largest public commissions have brought his work to permanent, unmissable locations. He designed the altar, pulpit, lamps, and stained glass windows for the Gøtu Church in the Faroe Islands. For the Eysturoy Tunnel, completed in 2020 and famous for its undersea roundabout, he created an 80-metre light installation consisting of 86 human figures in oxidising metal - described by Patursson as a tribute to the Faroese tradition of working together. In February 2013, his installation Migration, featuring approximately 90 stained glass birds suspended across the Grand Foyer windows of the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., brought his work to a wide international audience as part of the Nordic Cool festival. In 2024, to mark his 80th birthday, the National Gallery of the Faroe Islands hosted the exhibition Light and Colour.
On Auctionist, 21 items by Patursson are catalogued, sold almost exclusively through Bruun Rasmussen in Aarhus and Lyngby. The works include lithographs, oil paintings, and glass sculptures, with glass pieces achieving the highest results - polychrome glass steles have sold for up to 19,500 DKK. Lithographs in edition typically sell in the 1,500-7,000 DKK range, placing Patursson among the more actively traded Nordic artists in the Danish auction market.