‘Gods and Monsters’ unleashed in new Museum exhibition

Local artist Dirk Robertson unveiled his collection of Norse mythological paintings in the Shetland Museum’s ‘Gadderie’ on Saturday afternoon.

Entitled ‘Gods and Monsters’, the exhibition showcases Dirk’s finest works, alongside a selection of acrylic paintings which tell the story of a number of dramatic episodes in Norse mythology.

Fittingly for an exhibition with such a viking presence, a selection of this year’s Lerwick Jarl Squad were in attendance to perform the Up Helly A’ song, with Guizer Jarl John Nicolson officially opening the exhibition to the public.

The Jarl Squad had agreed to help with Saturday’s ceremony as a thank you to Dirk, whose dragon design was a prominent part of the Lerwick squad’s suit this year.

Dirk took the invited audience around his exhibition, explaining in an enormously detailed and humorous speech the origins of each painting and how it related to his theme.

A spectacularly detailed tapestry which filled the back wall of ‘Da Gadderie’ garnered a particularly strong reception.

“Being able to finally put these paintings together, and specifically have people come and look at them, it’s been a long time coming,” Dirk said after the opening ceremony.

“I’m really pleased that this has happened because I have finally been able to explain to people what it is that I’ve been working on for so many years.”

Dirk described his pride at having his work displayed in ‘Da Gadderie’, saying that he would had wanted to have his paintings on display there “forever”, before adding that he hoped that casual visitors to the Museum would be turned on to his works.

He said that his paintings were the kind that he would have liked to have seen in art exhibitions when he was younger, and described his works as being for “the child version of myself”.

Paintings on display at the ceremony included Dirk’s design for The Revellers album ‘Skeletons’, his bill-heads for previous Jarls in Nesting and Scalloway, and his dragon design which adorned the front cover of January’s Shetland Life magazine.

The exhibition runs until Saturday May 4th in ‘Da Gadderie’ at the Shetland Museum.