Iceland: Beyond Fire and Ice
Lecture on Monday 10th May 2027 at 2:15PM
Lecturer: James Vaux
Venue: Larruperz Centre
If you want something completely different, have you thought of Iceland? We always imagine this plucky country in terms of its wild volcanic landscape, but it punches above its weight when it comes to culture.
Iceland is the size of Portugal, yet only has the same population as Coventry. It has suffered centuries of natural disasters, plague and famine, boom and bust. It was only able to support and exhibit homegrown artists from 1900. But it has made a huge contribution to global culture through its outstanding literature. Its medieval Sagas and Eddas contain the Nordic foundation story, much of what we know about the Vikings and Norse Mythology and have inspired foreign artists and writers for centuries. More recently Iceland has produced a Nobel prize winner for literature, conquered Nordic Noir and one in ten Icelanders will publish a book in their lifetimes.
This talk, illustrated with extraordinary art and photography, focuses on three Icelandic works of literature to tell the fascinating story of the island and its culture over a millennium. It features the country's own art from the Viking age to the 20th century, together with British works inspired by Iceland. These include paintings, sketches and even stained glass windows by Henry Fuseli, Edward Burne-Jones and W.G. Collingwood, together with the intrepid travel journals of Henry Holland, William Morris, W.H. Auden and Louis MacNeice.
James Vaux is a researcher and lecturer specialising in Nordic arts, culture, design and history. For the past two years he has been travelling across the Nordics, visiting and researching the homes and colonies of artists, writers, designers and musicians to provide first hand insights into their lives and works.
James took a law degree at Oxford with First Class Honours and qualified as a solicitor before switching career. As a managing director of the international bank Rothschild & Co, he set up and ran the bank's Nordic operations, living and working in Scandinavia and immersing himself in the countries' arts, culture and history. James then gained an MA (Distinction) at UCL in Scandinavian Studies.
He studied interior design and art history at the Inchbald School, Mid-Century Modern at Sotheby's Institute and electronic music at Point Blank. He has also been a DJ, promoter, record label owner, hosted a local radio show for four years and ran a community cinema.
He is now a popular lecturer on Nordic arts and design - as well as abstract expressionism - delivering 50 talks in 2025 alone. His focus is on placing works in their historical context and sharing inside knowledge from his extensive research trips and visits to artists' homes and colonies across the Nordics.