The article examines, for the first time through an existential- phenomenological lens, the painterly legacy of Sámal Joensen- Mikines (1906–1979) – the founder of professional Faroese painting. The novelty of the approach lies in interpreting the geographical space of the Faroe Islands not as an object of depiction but as a means of artistic selfpresentation and a medium for conveying fundamental states of human existence. Based on works from the 1930s to 1950s, the study reveals how Mikines, synthesising Expressionism (E. Munch, E. Nolde), Cubism, and a national worldview, creates a visual language in which the local landscape acquires the quality of an existential universe. A key device is the opposition between the boundless elemental force of the ocean and the enclosed space of ritual (circle dance, grind slaughter), which brings forth such existentials as loneliness, fear, hope, and stoic acceptance of fate. The geographical distance between his life in Copenhagen and his childhood in the Faroes is interpreted as a condition for aesthetic reflection, enabling the transformation of island reality into a metaphor of human existence. The study systematises Mikines’s formal expressionist techniques (dissonant colour, impasto, high vantage point, centripetal composition), which serve to embody “spirit” rather than to copy “nature”. The theoretical framework is provided by the concept of existentials as anthropological constants, situating the artist's work within the context of 20th-century philosophy of art. The article introduces previously inaccessible Scandinavian sources and offers a holistic model for analysing painting, in which space becomes the language of the artist’s selfpresentation.
Joensen-Mikines; self-presentation; space; Expressionism; existentials; Faroese painting; 20th century