Après des études aux Beaux Arts de Reykjavik de 1949 à 1951, puis à l’Académie d’Art d’Oslo, Erró part apprendre la mosaïque en Italie. Il s’installe à Paris en 1958 et grâce à sa rencontre et son amitié avec le poète et plasticien Jean-Jacques Lebel il côtoie les Surréalistes. Il s’initie alors au collage qui sera la base de toute sa démarche car il désire jouer avec les images, les détourner de leur quotidienneté banale pour les insérer dans un contexte méticuleusement préparé. Les représentations perdent leur sens original, se plient à l’histoire que l’artiste leur fait jouer et c’est cette vision nouvelle dans ce contexte inédit qui s’impose aux spectateurs. Erró puise dans l’iconographie de la culture savante comme de la culture de masse. Il collecte ses images dans tous les continents et ses séries mettent en scène tous les milieux à toutes les époques. Il puise dans les bandes dessinées, les photos de presse, les livres scientifiques, les clichés de la NASA, les catalogues d’expositions, les reportages de propagandes, les chefs d’œuvres de l’art, les prospectus de voyages, les portraits de vedettes et d’hommes politiques... Ces documents imprimés sont ses « provisions » et comme William Burroughs il peut dire « Images, millions of images, that’s what I eat ! ». Son atelier est une véritable agence de presse dans laquelle il est le chroniqueur omniprésent, le reporter qui rassemble toutes les représentations du monde pour en proposer une synthèse inédite. En 1963 quand il se rend pour la première fois à New York il rencontre les artistes du Pop Art : Rauschenberg, Rosenquist, Oldenburg, Warhol... et découvre des supermarchés démesurés et des fast-foods pantagruéliques. A partir de là, dans ses « Scapes », il tourne en dérision une société de l’hyper-abondance. Ce sont des toiles foisonnantes consacrées chaque fois obsessionnellement à un seul sujet : la nourriture, les voitures, mais aussi pêle-mêle les cartes de Saint Valentin, les Eskimos, les oiseaux, les poissons, les voitures... D’un point de vue formel, ses « Scapes » présentent une sorte de all-over figuratif dans l’esprit des all-over abstraits de Jackson Pollock. Dans sa boulimie visuelle Erró n’est jamais rassasié et c’est avec démesure qu’il sélectionne sa profusion d’images récupérées. Il les assemble et les transpose ensuite sur la toile à main levée pour terminer par l’épiscope en recherchant un intérêt esthétique incontestable. Il détaille : « Parlant des événements au jour le jour, je cherche à témoigner d’un moment, d’un état fugitif de la société, avant que les faits ne disparaissent par amnésie collective. » Avec gravité et humour à la fois, l’artiste met en scène tous les grands sujets de la société : dérive du politique dont il dénonce les excès pervers, consommation de masse, obsession du sexe, barbarie des guerres, Révolution culturelle en Chine, Révolution à Cuba, Guerre Froide, conflit Israélo-Palestinien... Reconnu de manière internationale, figure majeure de la Figuration Narrative, il déclare : « A mes yeux, la Figuration narrative doit procéder par galaxie d’images, sans jugement moral ou politique. Parfois l’envie est forte de composer d’amples espaces, bourrés d’informations, où il y aurait même une ville entière... La peinture est une espèce de voyage à travers les formes, les espaces, les styles et non la défense d’un territoire formel précis. » Cette passion pour le recyclage s’exprime dans ses compositions encyclopédiques, sursaturées d’informations et de couleurs, marquées par l’extrême complexité de la composition et porteuse d’une forte efficacité critique. Derrière la citation, le pastiche, le détournement, ses œuvres sont chargées d’un certain sens moral, d’une véritable dimension politique même si dans la radicalité de son geste il ne veut jamais être pris comme un artiste militant. Ses tableaux se lisent comme les vanités contemporaines d’un enlumineur éblouissant qui bien avant l’ère du tout numérique préfigure l’extrême présent des informations instantanées d’Internet.
After studying at the Fine Arts of Reykjavik from 1949 to 1951, then at the Academy of Art in Oslo, Erró leaves to learn mosaic in Italy. He moved to Paris in 1958 and thanks to his meeting and friendship with the poet and visual artist Jean-Jacques Lebel he rubbed shoulders with the Surrealists. He was introduced to collage, which was to become the basis of his entire approach, as he wanted to play with images, diverting them from their everyday banality to insert them into a meticulously prepared context. The representations lose their original meaning, bend to the story that the artist makes them play and it is this new vision in this new context that imposes itself to the spectators. Erró draws from the iconography of both scholarly and mass culture. He collects his images from all continents and his series feature all walks of life in all periods. He draws from comic books, press photos, scientific books, NASA photographs, exhibition catalogs, propaganda reports, art masterpieces, travel brochures, portraits of stars and politicians... These printed documents are his "provisions" and like William Burroughs he can say "Images, millions of images, that's what I eat! His studio is a real press agency in which he is the omnipresent chronicler, the reporter who gathers all the representations of the world to propose a new synthesis. In 1963, when he went to New York for the first time, he met the artists of Pop Art: Rauschenberg, Rosenquist, Oldenburg, Warhol... and discovered oversized supermarkets and pantagruelian fast-food restaurants. From there, in his "Scapes", he derides a society of hyper-abundance. They are abundant canvases devoted each time obsessively to a single subject: food, cars, but also in no particular order Valentine's Day cards, Eskimos, birds, fish, cars... From a formal point of view, his "Scapes" present a sort of figurative all-over in the spirit of Jackson Pollock's abstract all-over. In his visual bulimia Erró is never satisfied and it is with excess that he selects his profusion of recovered images. He assembles them and then transposes them on the canvas freehand to finish by the episcope by seeking an unquestionable aesthetic interest. He details: "Speaking of events from day to day, I seek to witness a moment, a fleeting state of society, before the facts disappear by collective amnesia. With gravity and humor at the same time, the artist stages all the great subjects of society: drift of politics whose perverse excesses he denounces, mass consumption, obsession with sex, barbarism of wars, Cultural Revolution in China, Revolution in Cuba, Cold War, Israeli-Palestinian conflict... Internationally recognized, a major figure of Narrative Figuration, he declares: "In my eyes, Narrative Figuration must proceed by galaxy of images, without moral or political judgment. Sometimes the desire is strong to compose large spaces, full of information, where there would even be a whole city... Painting is a kind of journey through forms, spaces, styles and not the defense of a precise formal territory. This passion for recycling is expressed in his encyclopedic compositions, oversaturated with information and colors, marked by the extreme complexity of the composition and carrying a strong critical effectiveness. Behind the quotation, the pastiche, the detour, his works are charged with a certain moral sense, with a real political dimension even if in the radicality of his gesture he never wants to be taken as a militant artist. His paintings read like the contemporary vanities of a dazzling illuminator who, long before the era of the all-digital world, prefigures the extreme present of instantaneous Internet information.
After studying at the Fine Arts of Reykjavik from 1949 to 1951, then at the Academy of Art in Oslo, Erró leaves to learn mosaic in Italy. He moved to Paris in 1958 and thanks to his meeting and friendship with the poet and visual artist Jean-Jacques Lebel he rubbed shoulders with the Surrealists. He was introduced to collage, which was to become the basis of his entire approach, as he wanted to play with images, diverting them from their everyday banality to insert them into a meticulously prepared context. The representations lose their original meaning, bend to the story that the artist makes them play and it is this new vision in this new context that imposes itself to the spectators. Erró draws from the iconography of both scholarly and mass culture. He collects his images from all continents and his series feature all walks of life in all periods. He draws from comic books, press photos, scientific books, NASA photographs, exhibition catalogs, propaganda reports, art masterpieces, travel brochures, portraits of stars and politicians... These printed documents are his "provisions" and like William Burroughs he can say "Images, millions of images, that's what I eat! His studio is a real press agency in which he is the omnipresent chronicler, the reporter who gathers all the representations of the world to propose a new synthesis. In 1963, when he went to New York for the first time, he met the artists of Pop Art: Rauschenberg, Rosenquist, Oldenburg, Warhol... and discovered oversized supermarkets and pantagruelian fast-food restaurants. From there, in his "Scapes", he derides a society of hyper-abundance. They are abundant canvases devoted each time obsessively to a single subject: food, cars, but also in no particular order Valentine's Day cards, Eskimos, birds, fish, cars... From a formal point of view, his "Scapes" present a sort of figurative all-over in the spirit of Jackson Pollock's abstract all-over. In his visual bulimia Erró is never satisfied and it is with excess that he selects his profusion of recovered images. He assembles them and then transposes them on the canvas freehand to finish by the episcope by seeking an unquestionable aesthetic interest. He details: "Speaking of events from day to day, I seek to witness a moment, a fleeting state of society, before the facts disappear by collective amnesia. With gravity and humor at the same time, the artist stages all the great subjects of society: drift of politics whose perverse excesses he denounces, mass consumption, obsession with sex, barbarism of wars, Cultural Revolution in China, Revolution in Cuba, Cold War, Israeli-Palestinian conflict... Internationally recognized, a major figure of Narrative Figuration, he declares: "In my eyes, Narrative Figuration must proceed by galaxy of images, without moral or political judgment. Sometimes the desire is strong to compose large spaces, full of information, where there would even be a whole city... Painting is a kind of journey through forms, spaces, styles and not the defense of a precise formal territory. This passion for recycling is expressed in his encyclopedic compositions, oversaturated with information and colors, marked by the extreme complexity of the composition and carrying a strong critical effectiveness. Behind the quotation, the pastiche, the detour, his works are charged with a certain moral sense, with a real political dimension even if in the radicality of his gesture he never wants to be taken as a militant artist. His paintings read like the contemporary vanities of a dazzling illuminator who, long before the era of the all-digital world, prefigures the extreme present of instantaneous Internet information.