Creative Hands
Creative Hands - Icelandic laid-and-couched embroideries of past centuries
The work presents decades of research by Elsa E. Guðjónsson, a textile and costume scientist (1924-2010) on the fifteen Icelandic refil-stitching garments that have been preserved. The garments feature some of Iceland's most spectacular works of art from earlier times, and they occupy a special place in the international context.
Elsa writes with precision and care about the career, the visuals, the technology and the historical and artistic context of each garment. Her research is unique in its order, and the book, adorned with hundreds of photographs, bears a beautiful witness to them.
Lilja Árnadóttir, a former stage director at the National Museum of Iceland and a partner of Elsa for many years, finished the work and created a print. Sigrún Sigvaldadóttir at Hunangi designed the book.
Five-star reviews
The book has received rave reviews. In the Source, Paul Baldvin Baldvinsson wrote about the book, saying, among other things:
The works of his hands are a unique achievement of long passion in the shelter of the National Museum, superbly produced and installed by the editors, richly illustrated, an international measure of the capacity and work of Icelandic education.
In Morgunblaðin on 1 December, Sölvi Sveinsson also gave the work five stars with a review entitled Achievement. He says, among other things:
... it may be asserted that here the sun shines on the works of women who sat and sewed works of art in the dark of their medieval god to the glory and had weather of continental love and national tradition. Elsa E. Gudjónsson has now put them on a pedestal properly and at the same time opened all the doors to revisit the history of art.
Exhibition in Bogasal: Creative hands
In November 2023, an eponymous exhibition was opened in Bogasal on the Fifteen Clothes. The Icelandic refilseaming garments owned by museums in Denmark, France and the Netherlands have been borrowed for this occasion. The National Museum celebrates its 160th anniversary with this landmark exhibition.