Erró is an Icelandic artist who has an international reputation as a leader in narrative figuration. This current is a French equivalent of the pop art that emerged in the United States in the early 1960s. Erró is also the pioneer of painted collage, which he compares to automatic writing. 

In 1958, Erró moved to Paris, where he met writers, artists and art critics linked to the Surrealist movement: Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, Victor Brauner, André Masson, Roberto Matta and Joan Miró. Erró gave up his imaginary representations to make collage the exclusive matrix of his work.

In the 1960s, the artist discovered the culture of mass consumption in America during his stay in New York. Erró's technique consisted of painting only after mounting "ready-made" images taken from advertisements, comic strips, reproductions of works or postcards that he carefully selected.

Celebrities, superheroes, politicians, extraterrestrials and warriors are the characters most present in his works. Erró confronts different civilisations and ideologies in his creations, and a delirious joy emanates from his paintings.

Education

1955

Academy of Fine Arts of Florence, Italy

1952

Olso Academy, Norway

1949

Fine Arts Reykjavik, Iceland

Public collections

- MoMA, New York

- Centre Pompidou, Paris 

- Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris

- MNCA - Reina Sofia, Madrid

- Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, National Galerie

- Moderna Museet, Stockholm

- Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo

- Louisiana museum of modern art, Humlebæk, Denmark

- Hara museum, Tokyo

- Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

- Museum of Modern Art, Seoul

- Museum of Modern Art, Tel Aviv

- Kunstmuseum, Bergen 

- Fundaçao de Arte Moderna e Contemporanea - Coleçao Berardo, Lisbon

- Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna 

- Amsterdam Museum, Amsterdam

- Reykjavik City Museum, Reykjavik

- Listasafn Islands / National Gallery of Iceland, Reykjavik 

- National Museum of History and Art Luxembourg 

- MAC Lyon, France 

- MAC/VAL, Museum of Contemporary Art of Val-de-Marne 

- Ludwig museum, Aachen

- Kunstmuseum, Bern

- Konstmuseum, Gothenburg

- Museum of Grenoble, France 

- Harald Falckenberg, Phoenix Kulturstiftung, Hamburg

- Museum of Modern Art, Saint-Etienne

- Bezalel museum, Jerusalem

- Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de La Habana, Havana

- Alcala 31, Sala de Exposiciones, Consejeria de Cultura Y Deporte, Madrid

- Städtische galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich

- National Library of Greenland, Nuuk

- Kunstmuseum, Randers, Denmark

- Stämpfli Foundation, Sitges 

- Centraal Museum, Utrecht

- Instituto de Arte Moderno, Valencia

- National air and Space museum, Washington, D.C.

- Dole Museum of Fine Arts

- Gandur Foundation for Art, Geneva

- Muzej Savremene Umetnosti / Belgrade Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade

- Vincent van Gogh Foundation, Arles 

- Dunkirk Museum of Contemporary Art

- Lille Metropole Museum of Modern Art

- Rhône-Alpes Institute of Contemporary Art

- RMN Collection, Paris

- Collection of the City of Choisy-le-Roi, France 

- Municipal Office of San Francisco Javier, Formentera

- Fondation Marguerite et Aimé Maeght, Saint Paul de Vence 

- King Baudoin Foundation, Bibliotheca Wittockiana, Brussels

- Picasso Museum, Antibes

- Bertrand Museum, Châteauroux

- Cantini Museum, Marseille

- Museum of Contemporary Art La Maison Carrée, Nîmes

- Bibliothèque nationale de France, cabinet des estampes, Paris

- La Villette, Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie, Paris

- Hôtel des Invalides, Paris

- National Fund of Contemporary Art Paris

- Languedoc-Roussillon Regional Fund for Contemporary Art

- Rhône-Alpes Regional Fund for Contemporary Art

- Regional Fund of Contemporary Art Reunion Island 

- Franche-Comté Regional Fund for Contemporary Art