Early Morning, oil on canvas, 206cm x 175.5cm, by Odd Nerdrum

Odd Nerdrum (born April 8, 1944) is a Norwegian figurative painter. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... April 8 is the 98th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (99th in leap years). ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ...

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. County Oslo NO-03 District Viken Municipality NO-0301 Administrative centre Oslo Mayor (2004) Per Ditlev-Simonsen (H) Official language form Neutral Area  - Total  - Land  - Percentage Ranked 224 454 km² 426 km² 0. ... This article or section needs a complete rewrite for the reasons listed on the talk page. ... NY redirects here. ... Kitsch is a German term that has been used to categorize art that is considered an inferior copy of an existing style. ...

Nerdrum divides his time between his home in Iceland and his farm in Norway.

Art

Hermaphrodite, oil on canvas, 211cm x 205cm, by Odd Nerdrum

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. In Odd Nerdrum's new body of work he continues his exploration of the human condition. This time, however, he removes the figure from the Icelandic landscape. Nerdrum’s places the figures floating in space. Human beings are depicted suspended in space, embracing, wrestling, struggling, and floating helplessly. The people are naked and everything else connected with earthly needs, such as gravity and consumption is removed. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...

Drifting, oil on canvas, 204cm x 284cm, by Odd Nerdrum

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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.

Exhibitions

The kiss, oil on canvas, 98cm x 78cm, by Odd Nerdrum

Kunstnersforbundet 1967-70-73 Oslo-76-84 Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...

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

Sleeping prophet, oil on canvas, 294cm x 288cm,2000, by Odd Nerdrum

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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."

• Odd Nerdrum by Justin Spring, part of a review first published in Artforum International, April 1st, 1993

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.

Trivia

Dawn, oil on canvas, 284.5cm x 194cm, by Odd Nerdrum

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. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... 2000 (MM) was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... The Cell is a 2000 movie written by Mark Protosevich and directed by Tarsem Singh. ... Tarsem Singh (born May 26, 1961) is a music video and commercial director. ... A major selling point of DVD video is that its storage capacity allows for a wide variety of extra features in addition to the feature film itself. ...

Nerdrum created the cover of the progressive rock band Junipher Greene's LP Friendship (1971). For the Swedish political music movement, see progg. ... 1971 (MCMLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday. ...

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