The Heart of Art Is Owned by the Political Left Wing Odd Nerdrum

Norwegian figurative painter (built-in 1944)

Odd Nerdrum
Nerdrum at Gallen-Kallela Museum, Republic of finland in 2020
Built-in	(1944-04-08) viii Apr 1944 (age 78) Helsingborg, Sweden
Nationality	Swedish-Norwegian
Known for	Painting

Odd Nerdrum (built-in viii Apr 1944) is a Norwegian figurative painter, born in Sweden, and considered to be one of the greatest living classical figurative painters.^[1] His piece of work is held by museums worldwide. Themes and mode in Nerdrum'south work reference anecdote and narrative. Main influences by the painters Rembrandt and Caravaggio aid place his work in directly conflict with the brainchild and conceptual fine art considered acceptable in much of Norway. Nerdrum creates 6 to viii paintings a year. They include still life paintings of small-scale, everyday objects (like bricks), portraits and cocky-portraits, and large paintings allegorical and apocalyptic in nature. The figures in Nerdrum's paintings are often dressed every bit if from another time and identify.^[2]

Nerdrum was built-in in Helsingborg, Sweden, because his parents were resistance fighters who had fled German language-occupied Kingdom of norway during World War II. At the end of the state of war Nerdrum returned to Norway with his parents. Past 1950 Nerdrum's parents had divorced leaving the mother to raise Nerdrum and his younger blood brother. In 1993, Nerdrum discovered his father was not his biological begetter; his mother had had a human relationship with the builder David Sandved. Nerdrum was born from this liaison. Nerdrum was educated in a Rudolf Steiner schoolhouse and afterward at the Fine art Academy of Oslo. Disillusioned with the fine art form taught at the university and with mod fine art in general Nerdrum began to teach himself to paint in a mail service modern manner with Rembrandt and Caravaggio as influences. In 1965, he began a several-months study with the German artist Joseph Beuys.

Nerdrum says that his fine art should be understood every bit kitsch rather than art as such. On Kitsch, a manifesto composed by Nerdrum, describes the distinction he makes between kitsch and art.^[iii] Nerdrum's philosophy has spawned The Kitsch Movement among his students and followers, who call themselves kitsch painters rather than artists.

Biography [edit]

Early life [edit]

Odd Nerdrum was built-in in Helsingborg, Sweden in 1944. His parents, Resistance fighters, had been sent to Sweden from German-occupied Norway to direct guerrilla activities from exterior the state. A year later, at the end of the war, Odd and his parents moved back to Norway. Lillemor, his female parent, soon after went to New York to study at the Fashion Institute of Technology. The feeling of being unwanted and abandoned Nerdrum felt at this time would stay with him until he was in his late forties, and he often felt emotionally distanced. In 1950, Nerdrum's parents divorced, leaving Nerdrum'south mother, Lillemor, to enhance two modest children, Odd, and his younger brother.^[4]

Nerdrum's father, Johan Nerdrum, afterwards remarried. Although he was supportive of Odd, he kept an emotional distance between himself and his son. At his death, Odd was asked not to attend the funeral. He establish out three years later that Johan was non his biological father. Odd, was in fact, the result of a liaison between David Sandved and Lillemor. Lillemor and Sandved had had a relationship prior to Lillemor'south marriage, and this was resumed during the state of war in a menstruation when Johan was absent. Richard Vine, art critic, describes this episode in Nerdrum'south life every bit one which created "a conflicted preoccupation with origins and personal identity", that "came natural to Nerdrum" and was represented in his pictures. He would go on to make paintings nearly these experiences.^[4]

Early teaching [edit]

Nerdrum began his formal education in 1951 in Oslo, in the private Oslo Waldorf School (Rudolf Steiner school) rather than in the standard, public school system. This education would set Odd apart from his contemporaries. The arrangement was based on anthroposophy that saw flesh as once living in harmony with the universe merely now existing in a bottom state of rationality. Through spiritual or esoteric do, Steiner believed mankind could find its way back to a connection with higher realities and to renewed harmony with the universe. Learning for students was ofttimes kinesthetic, for example, through dramatic enactments of history and fantasy, and through musical exercises that were reminiscent of the patterns establish on ancient Greek vases, depicting figures moving in parallel patterns. These parallel patterns could be constitute in afterwards Nerdrum piece of work, as tin a sensibility for iconographic images and costume.

Jens Bjørneboe, Norwegian author, and mentor said Nerdrum fifty-fifty at a young historic period exhibited tendencies of innate talent and industry, just as well impatience with those with less abilities than himself.^[4]

Artistic study [edit]

Nerdrum began study at the Norwegian National Academy of Fine Arts, but became dissatisfied with the direction of modern art, notably Rauschenberg's piece of work, and began to teach himself how to paint in a Neo Baroque mode, with the guidance of Rembrandt'southward technique and work as a primary influence. Nerdrum had seen Rembrandt's painting, The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis in the National Museum of Fine Arts in Stockholm. Nerdrum says seeing the painting was "a shock... Pervasive. Like finding home. I can say I constitute a home in this picture,... The wonderful thing with Rembrandt is the conviction he inspires - like when you warm your hands on a stove. Without Rembrandt I would have been and then poor,"^[five] By abandoning the accepted path of modern art, Nerdrum had placed himself in direct opposition to most aspects of the school, including his primary painting teacher, his fellow students, and a curriculum designed to nowadays Norway as a country with an upwards-to-engagement creative culture. He, in his own words was chased from the academy after a two-year menses like a "scroungy mutt". Years later Nerdrum said,

I saw that I was in the process of making a choice that would cease in defeat. By choosing those qualities that were and then alien to my ain time, I had to give upwards at the same time the fine art on which the art of our time rests. I had to paint in defiance of my own era without the protection of the era's superstructure. Briefly put I would pigment myself into isolation. ^[6]

Nerdrum after studied with Joseph Beuys, at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. However, he continued to feel isolated from the other students, who nicknamed him "Zorn" from the notorious Swedish "mankind-painter."^[iv]

Influences [edit]

Rembrandt and Caravaggio are main influences on Nerdrum'south work, while secondary influences include Masaccio, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Titian, and the less obvious influences, according to Vine and either mentioned by Nerdrum himself or other critics, that include Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Goya, Chardin, Millet, too as the even less apparent Henry Fuseli, Caspar David Friedrich, Ferdinand Hodler, Edvard Munch, Käthe Kollwitz, Salvador Dalí, Chaïm Soutine and Lars Hertervig.^[4]

Direction [edit]

Early work (1964–1982) [edit]

Nerdrum'southward work from the first 20 years of his artistic life consisted of big canvasses, by and large polemic in nature, that served to refute accepted social or economic view points. The work from this period was highly representational and detailed in nature with often careful attention to contemporary references, such as in clothing, or in the model of a wheel as in the painting The Arrest. Vine notes that, Nerdrum's influence was not, as might be expected, given the themes of the piece of work, of the ideological Ashcan school motion, just predates the Ashcan school, although similar in subject matter. In 1968, Nerdrum had viewed for the first time the works of Caravaggio whose psychologically intense work, apply of cross lighting, strongly suggested shadow that implied iii dimensionality, and use of the faces of real, everyday people impacted him intensely, and provided one of the major influences for his piece of work of this time period. He would revisit Italy and Caravaggio's work for on-going inspiration for many years.

Every bit well, Nerdrum was a reader of visionary literature that included works past Rudolf Steiner, the prophetic William Blake, the dark Dostoyevsky, and the mystical Swedenborg. This would influence him towards a more vertical sensibility rather than the linear Marxist view based on revolution that influenced virtually artists with socially reformist sensibilities.

As a young student, Nerdrum had encountered the works of the master painters in the National Museum. In particular, Rembrandt's The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis (1661) acted as a powerful antitoxin to his sensibilities. His disillusionment with modernistic art, such as Robert Rauschenberg's Monogram,^[7] a stuffed caprine animal with a tire effectually its heart section standing on a flat, littered surface, which Nerdrum had encountered in the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm, filled the young artist with cloy.

These influences both positive and negative would impact all of Nerdrum's work. A turning point in Nerdrum's work - the end of Nerdrum'southward more contemporary scene-like piece of work, and the move towards more Rembrandt-like painting elements- revolved effectually the enormous (11x16¾ pes) Refugees At Ocean (1979–1980). Nerdrum, according to Vine, afterward considered the work to exist naive in the sense that Rousseau defines the give-and-take, in which mankind is seen as innocent and innately expert. In the painting Nerdrum endows the refugees, 27 Vietnamese gunkhole people, with heroic stature, just in a highly sentimentalized manner that Nerdrum later described as "cloying".

Modify in management [edit]

In 1981 Nerdrum created a seminal work that would serve to indicate a change in direction from the sentimentalized view of Refugees at Sea to a starker, unadorned view of reality. Twilight, a rear view of a young woman lone in a wooded landscape defecating, offers nothing sentimental or ideal in its expose, but instead offers a stripped away view of life and reality.

Paintings were no longer equally multi-figured as they had been with Refugees at Bounding main, and even so lifes were of private objects such every bit a brick or loaf of bread. The individuals who at present populated Nerdrum'due south painting were imbued with peachy placidity and stillness, just as Vine says, additionally, were vitally alive evoking a catholic oneness, simply yet did not transcend individuality.

These figures, every bit types rather than endowed with features or apparent stories that might distinguish them equally individual, were costumed in garments that seemed timeless: furs, skins, leather caps, rather than in clothing that would link the viewer to a specific time and place.

Archetypal-like, these beings, inhabited pre-social, apocalyptic-like circumstances that included stark, astringent landscapes, a reference to some identify across our own time and space.

Painting technique [edit]

Nerdrum's approach to painting is based on traditional methods that included mixing and grinding his own pigments, working on sail he had stretched or stretched by assistants rather than on pre-stretched canvas, and working from live models often himself, and in many cases members of his own family. In 2011, Nerdrum stated that the technique he used in the 1980s was faulty, "a special mixture of oils and paint in an endeavour to recreate the mode of the old masters" which afterwards melted and disintegrated.^[8]

Process [edit]

Of his process Nerdrum says. "When I paint every bit if I struggle in the water. I volition attempt with all ways not to drown. Sandpaper, rags, my fingers, the knife-in short everything. The brush is rarely used."^[6]

Drawings and prints [edit]

Odd Nerdrum prints are based on his paintings. For example, an carving entitled Baby is based on a painting of the same title from 1982. Nerdrum refers to his highly finished, charcoal drawings as "paintings" Oft his drawings are large in scale and are works in their own right, also as existence studies for future paintings.

On kitsch [edit]

Odd Nerdrum has declared himself to be a kitsch-painter identifying himself with kitsch rather than with the contemporary art world. Initially, Nerdrum'due south declaration was thought to be a joke only after, and with the publication of articles and books on the subject, Nerdrum'south position can be seen every bit an implied criticism of gimmicky fine art.^[9]

Collections [edit]

Odd Nerdrum's work is held in public collections worldwide including the National Gallery in Oslo,^[10] the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modernistic Art, in Oslo, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.,^[11] the Metropolitan Museum of Fine art, in New York,^[12] the New Orleans Museum of Fine art, in New Orleans,^[13] the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, in San Diego,^[14] and the Walker Fine art Centre, in Minneapolis.^[15]

Odd Nerdrum is represented by the Forum Gallery, New York.^[16]

Court cases [edit]

In 2011, Nerdrum was convicted in Norway of tax evasion and sentenced to two years in prison house. An entreatment was filed.^[17] His defense claimed that a very large amount of money stored in a prophylactic deposit box in Republic of austria was "a safety fund for some 36 paintings that Nerdrum had created in the 1980'due south using an experimental medium which began to melt when exposed to heat."^[xviii] The sentence was criticised as excessive^[xviii] while art professor Øivind Storm Bjerke chosen the judgement "strict"^[19] Supporters stated that at that place were flaws in the proceedings of the trial, such every bit faulty bear witness.^[20] Nerdrum claimed the case was an attempt at political persecution.^[21]

In January 2012, the Norwegian court of appeal granted Nerdrum a new trial.^[22] The trial began on 11 June.^[23] After three trial days, Nerdrum was once again convicted of taxation evasion and sentenced to 2 years and 10 months in prison. In 2013, the verdict was set aside by the Supreme Court of Norway;^{[24] [25]} in 2014 courtroom of appeals found him guilty of tax evasion and he was sentenced to 20 months in prison; 8 months were suspended.^[26] Under Norwegian police, Nerdrum would be forbidden from whatever painting action in prison, as prisoners in Kingdom of norway are not immune to pursue business organization activities while incarcerated.^[nineteen]

In October 2012, Nerdrum lost a suit filed confronting the regional tax authority. The Oslo court ruled that the funds that Nerdrum had set aside in Austria did not establish a 'loan, security, depot or committed funds' and should have been disclosed equally income.^[27]

In September 2017 Nerdrum was pardoned by King Harald of Kingdom of norway.^[28]

Nerdrum'south piece of work equally inspiration [edit]

A 2000 horror picture, The Cell, contains a scene that was heavily influenced past Nerdrum'southward 1989 painting Dawn. The scene features three identical figures sitting downwards, looking upwards with pained, trance-similar expressions on their faces. Director Tarsem Singh in the film's audio commentary says that the painting was the inspiration for the scene's imagery. Singh had seen the painting while visiting the owner of the painting, David Bowie.^[29]

Australian choreographer, Meryl Tankard's 2009 dance slice, The Oracle, was inspired past the work of Nerdrum. The work, featuring the dancer Paul White, was about the human being in constant struggle with forces exterior of itself.^[thirty]

The Norwegian classical composer Martin Romberg wrote a collection of piano pieces inspired past three of Nerdrum's works in 2014, named Tableaux Kitsch. The pieces are inspired past the paintings To the Lighthouse, Stranded, and Drifting, and was premiered at Nerdrum's exhibitions in Paris 2013 and Barcelona 2016.^{[31] [32]}

Exhibitions [edit]

• Skiens Kunstforening, Skien, Norway "Minner" June–September 2017
• Galleri Agardh Tornvall, Stockholm, Sweden "Making Painting Great again" November 2017
• Mollbrink'south Fine art Gallery, Uppsala, Sweden "Making Painting bully once again" March 2018

Publications [edit]

• Odd Nerdrum, Joacim Ericsson, Per Lundgren, David Molesky, Richard T. Scott, Richard Vine. The Nerdrum Schoolhouse: The Master and His Students. Oslo, Kingdom of norway: Orfeus Publishing, Nov. 2013. ISBN 978-91-87543-04-3.^[33]
• Odd Nerdrum, January-Ove Tuv, Bjorn Li, Dag Solhjell, Tommy Sorbo, Maria Kreyn, Kitsch: More than than Art. Oslo, Norway: Schibsted 2011. ISBN 978-82-516-3638-4.
• Odd Nerdrum, Bjørn Li. Odd Nerdrum: themes: paintings, drawings, prints and sculptures. Oslo, Norway: Press Publishing, 2007. ISBN 82-7547-226-1.
• Odd Nerdrum and Richard Vine. Odd Nerdrum: paintings, sketches and drawings. Oslo, Norway: Gyldendal Fakta, 2001. ISBN 82-489-0121-1.
• Odd Nerdrum, On Kitsch Oslo, Kingdom of norway: Kagge Publishing, 2001 ISBN 978-8248901235
• Odd Nerdrum and Jan-Erik Ebbestad Hansen. Odd Nerdrum: paintings. Oslo, Norway: Aschehoug, 1995. ISBN 82-03-26063-2.
• Odd Nerdrum, January Åke Pettersson and Astrup Fearnley Museet for Moderne Kunst. Odd Nerdrum: storyteller and cocky-revealer. Oslo, Norway: Astrup Fearnley museet for moderne kunst: Aschehoug, 1999. ISBN 82-03-22272-two.
• Odd Nerdrum, Richard Vine, E John Bullard and New Orleans Museum of Art. Odd Nerdrum, the drawings. New Orleans, Louisiana: New Orleans Museum of Art, 1994. ISBN 0-89494-047-3.

References [edit]

1. ^ Brock, Chris. "'Odd' squad: Black River native apprentices to a primary painter". NNY 360. Watertown Daily Times and Northern New York Newspapers. Retrieved 14 Oct 2020.
2. ^ Hamilton, Martina. "Near Odd Nerdrum". Retrieved 16 April 2012.
3. ^ Pettinger, E.J. (29 December 2004). "The Kitsch Campaign". Boise Weekly. Archived from the original on 7 April 2012. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
4. ^ ^{a b c d e} Vine, Richard (2001). Odd Nerdrum: Paintings, Sketches and Drawings. Oslo: Gyldendal Norsk Forlag A/S, Gyldendal Fakta. pp. 26-42
5. ^ "Nå snakker Odd Nerdrum igjen" ("Now Odd Nerdrum is talking again") Eivind Kristensen, Dagbladet, May 11, 2010.
6. ^ ^{a b} Nerdrum, Odd.Themes: Paintings, Drawings, Prints and Sculptures, Printing Publishing, Norway, 2007.pg11
7. ^ "Monogram". Retrieved 17 April 2012.
8. ^ Nina Berglund, "Artist pleads 'not guilty' to revenue enhancement evasion," Views and News from Norway, August 3, 2011
9. ^ "Odd Nerdrum Biography". The Nerdrum Plant. Archived from the original on 7 Apr 2012. Retrieved 17 April 2012.
10. ^ Odd Nerdrum, National Gallery, Oslo
11. ^ Odd Nerdrum, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
12. ^ Odd Nerdrum, Metropolitan Museum of Fine art
13. ^ Odd Nerdrum, New Orleans Museum of Fine art
14. ^ Odd Nerdrum, Museum of Gimmicky Art of San Diego
15. ^ Odd Nerdrum, Waker Fine art Center
16. ^ Odd Nerdrum, Forum Gallery
17. ^ Nina Berglund, "Artist Odd Nerdrum sentenced to jail," Views and News from Kingdom of norway, Baronial 17, 2011
18. ^ ^{a b} Nina Berglund, "Controversy Follows Conviction of Creative person Odd Nerdrum for Alleged Revenue enhancement Fraud Archived 2008-eleven-22 at the Wayback Machine," ArtDaily.com, Baronial 22, 2011
19. ^ ^{a b} Nina Berglund, "Artist can't paint in prison," Views and News from Norway, August xix, 2011
20. ^ Allison Malafronte, American Artist Mag Archived 2012-07-22 at the Wayback Machine, January-Feb 2012
21. ^ "Gratis Odd Nerdrum". Archived from the original on 2 July 2012. Retrieved 6 July 2012.
22. ^ Trulson, Ola (2012-01-26). "Nerdrum-sak til lagmannsretten/Nerdum Goes To The Court of Appeal". NRK . Retrieved twenty April 2012.
23. ^ "Nerdrum stämmer norska skatteverket (Nerdrum sues the Norwegian Revenue Service)", Dagens Nyheter Kultur / TT Spektra, 1 March 2012.
24. ^ http://world wide web.vg.no/rampelys/nerdrum-milliontap-paa-fransk-slott/a/10123730/
25. ^ Anker til høyesterett (Appeals to the Supreme Court), (Dagbladet, Article in Norwegian), 29 June 2012.
26. ^ "Odd Nerdrum dømt til fengsel for skattesvik - Aftenposten". www.aftenposten.no. Archived from the original on 2016-11-12.
27. ^ "Nerdrum lost in court once more". www.newsinenglish.no . Retrieved 2020-10-08 .
28. ^ editorial unknown name (October 11, 2017). "Hats off to Harald". New York Sun. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
29. ^ "Nerdrum kopiert i Lopez-thriller" ("Nerdrum copied in Lopez thriller"), Jon Selås, Verdens Gang, Sep viii 2000
30. ^ "Meryl Tankard". Archived from the original on ane October 2013. Retrieved six May 2012.
31. ^ "Romberg'due south interview with Bork Nerdrum for Earth Wide Kitsch 2016". World Broad Kitsch.
32. ^ "Event Report from Odd Nerdrum Exhibition, Paris 2013". Huffington Post.
33. ^ The Nerdrum School, Orfeus Publishing, Nov 2013.

External links [edit]

• Odd Nerdrum: A drove of 63 works (HD), Video 6:49.
• Odd Nerdrum: The Cocky-portrait (2015), Video 34:29.
• Odd Nerdrum official website
• Forum Gallery - the gallery representing Nerdrum

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odd_Nerdrum

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