Iceland Banknotes 2000 Icelandic Krona banknote 1986
Central Bank of Iceland - Seðlabanki Íslands
Obverse: Portrait of Artist Jóhannes S. Kjarval (1885-1972); in the background is a stylised detail from his painting Outside and Inside.
Reverse: Kjarval's painting Yearning for Flight and his drawing Woman and Flowers.
Blind recognition feature: open intaglio-printed triangle on the obverse.
The watermark is a portrait of Jón Sigurðsson, leader of Iceland's independence movement. It is clearly visible on both sides of the note when held up to the light.
First put into circulation in 1995. Size: 70 x 150 mm. Predominant colour: brown and yellow (obverse) and blue-violet and yellow (reverse) on multicoloured underprint.
Artists: Kristin Thorkelsdottir, Stephan Fairbairn.
Icelandic banknotes - Iceland paper money
1981-2013 Issue
Currency Reform 1981 (1:100)
In 1981, the Icelandic króna was devalued, due to hyperinflation, with 100 old krónur (ISJ) being worth 1 new króna (ISK).
2000 Kronur 5000 Kronur 10000 Kronur
Johannes Sveinsson Kjarval (15 October 1885 – 13 April 1972) was an Icelandic painter. He is by many considered one of the most important artists of Iceland.
Born in poverty, he was adopted and as a young man worked as a fisherman. However, he spent every spare time drawing and painting and managed to learn basics from artist Ásgrímur Jónsson. At age 27 with financial support from fishermen and the Icelandic Confederation of Labour he passed an entrance examination and was admitted to the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts for higher education in the arts where he completed his studies. During the Copenhagen years he became acquainted with various styles including impressionism, expressionism and cubism but he also became an accomplished draughtsman, possibly one of the finest Iceland ever had. Later he also took shorter trips to France and Italy. Later in his life his art frequently also included abstract painting.
Kjarval was a prolific painter, leaving thousands of drawings and paintings after a long life. The paintings vary greatly in style and frequently mix different styles into a very personal style. Although not surreal, some of his works include absurd and symbolist elements mixing elves and myths into landscape. Many of his works include Icelandic landscape and lava formation but many of his landscape paintings are partially "cubist" and abstract with his focus on zooming on the closest ground and less the impressive mysterious mountains in the background. The painter has been much discussed and also criticized by some because of this unusual mixture. Nevertheless, it is an oversimplication to classify him has a landscape painter. His work includes expressionist, abstract, cubist, landscape and portrait paintings and drawings - and his "style promiscuity" was highly original as the man himself was. He was a highly original modernizer of his time and still remains quite unique among Icelandic and world painters. In 1958 he was awarded the Prince Eugen Medal by the King of Sweden.
In Reykjavík a museum which is Part of the Reykjavík Art Museum is called Kjarvalsstaðir and presents his works besides other exhibitions.