Nína Tryggvadóttir

Jónína Tryggvadóttir, known as Nína, was born on March 16, 1913, in Seyðisfjörður in eastern Iceland. Studying at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, she moved to New York in 1943 to study with Fernand Léger and Hans Hofmann at the Art Students League.

Tryggvadóttir was a central figure in early Icelandic abstraction, creating bold compositions of interlocking geometric color planes evoking volcanic basalt and northern light. Living and working between Paris, London, and New York, she created magnificent stained glass installations for Skálholt Cathedral and the National Museum of Iceland before her life was cut short by cancer at fifty-five.