Odd Nerdrum
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Odd Nerdrum (born April 8, 1944) is a Norwegian figurative painter.
Nerdrum was born in Oslo and studied traditional classical painting in the Art Academy of Oslo and, with Joseph Beuys, in New York. He began to teach himself how to paint in a classical manner, putting himself in direct opposition to the art of his native Norway. Nerdrum devised a method of painting of mixing and grinding his own pigments, stretching his canvas and the working from live models. He had his first one-person gallery exhibition in New York at the Martina Hamilton Gallery in 1983. He is now living in Iceland. Nerdrum became a controversial artist, claiming among other things that his art should be understood as kitsch rather than art as such.
Nerdrum divides his time between his home in Iceland and his farm in Norway.
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[edit] Art
Odd Nerdrum’s art shows some affinity with Rembrandt and Caravaggio, particularly in regard to technique. This, however, is where the similarities end. His paintings are undoubtedly contemporary and depict many of the anxieties we feel about the modern world. In the 1980s, his work took on a more mythical appearance with figures roaming through an apocalyptic landscape. In the spring of 1986, Odd Nerdrum visited Iceland for the first time. He then started to use the landscape in Iceland as backdrops for his allegorical paintings. It is sometimes difficult to tell whether the paintings show the past, present or future. Perhaps this is the point they are timeless. There was growing unease and tension in his paintings in the early 1990s. Relations between men and women appear strained, but there is a more conciliatory spirit in some lighter works produced in the summer of 1997. Themes recently seem to be centred around gender and the metamorphosis of the human body, seen in any works depicting hermaphrodite figures in which man and woman merge. Other works show the images of the artist asleep. It is even possible that these images are metaphors for death or other anxieties. Of course in common with most of his work there is a degree of mystery and this is what gives his work it’s compelling and imaginative qualities.
[edit] Collections
His work is in several important public collections including the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, NY, The National Gallery in Oslo, Norway, The New Orleans Museum in LA, The Portland Art Museum in OR, The San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art in CA, and The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, MN.
[edit] Exhibitions
Kunstnersforbundet 1967-70-73 Oslo-76-84
Galleri 27 Oslo 1972
The Bedford Way Gallery 1982
Martina Hamilton Gallery 1984
Delaware Art Museum Wilmington 1985
The Museum of Contemporary Art ,Chicago IL 1988
Lemberg Gallery Birmingham 1991 MI
Gothenburg art Museum Sweden 1991
Bergen Art Museum Norway 1992
Edward Thorp Gallery New-York 1992
New Orleans Museum of Art 1994
Forum Gallery ,New-York 1996
Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo Norway 1998
Kunsthal Rotterdam ,The Netherlands 1999
Amos Andersson Museum, Finland 1999
Young Classic, Harry Bergman Gallery, Alands Art museum 2000 Finland
[edit] Reviews
"There are more men than women here, but sexual pairing seems to occur only in death (or a sleep resembling death). Which is not to say desire is nowhere present. It is everywhere. If anything makes these pictures compelling, it's their consistent fascination with the human body. The images--of paired corpses, madmen, men in pain, a man without eyes--may be frightful and abhorrent, but every limb and torso is lovingly rendered. Pale, muscular, sexual, the figures are painted so that one must take them seriously--in much the same way that it is music that grounds the otherwise bizarre stage spectacles of Wagnerian opera."
[edit] Bibliography
Odd Nerdrum:Paintings,Sketches and drawings by Richard Vine.
Odd Nerdrum: Paintings by Jan-Erik Ebbestad Hansen
Odd Nerdrum:Storyteller and Self Revealer by Jan-Åke Pettersson.
Odd Nerdrum: Drawings BY Odd Nerdrum.
[edit] Trivia
The 2000 horror film The Cell featured a scene that was heavily influenced by Nerdrum's 1990 painting Dawn. The scene features three identical figures sitting down, looking upwards with pained, trance-like expressions on their faces. Director Tarsem Singh names the painting as the origin of the scene's imagery on the film's audio commentary.
Nerdrum created the cover of the progressive rock band Junipher Greene's LP Friendship (1971).
[edit] External links
- Odd Nerdrum official website
- Forum Gallery - the gallery representing Nerdrum
- Art in Context - relevant links to Nerdrum, including list of exhibitions
- A web page showing paintings by Nerdrum - "selvportrett" = self portraits (lower part of page show paintings by other painters)
- "Odd Nerdrum near Icelandic citizenship" - article in Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, December 12, 2003
- Odd Nerdrum in artcyclopedia
- Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington - Spring,1977
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