Proper nowadays artists - day 345: Odd Nerdrum (Norway)

Odd Nerdrum (1944, Norway)

Where to start with Nerdrum?

My own personal experience was that I was deeply skeptical of Nerdrum when I went to the FAA, Sweden. I hadn’t heard of him prior to that and you immediately got the sense from some that here was a figure to be revered. A literal legend. When people were talking about him I was reminded of the Hare Krishnas who used to give out free books on the streets. There were some stories about him and the Norwegian government in the press at the time; the tax charges against him and his melting paintings. I thought the artists reactions to this stuff were quite paranoid sounding frankly and it all seemed more than a bit weird. Regardless, I went to see a massive show of his work in Edsvik Konsthall near Stockholm in about 2011 and was actually hugely impressed with his paintings, especially his still-lifes. So, I was wrong about his art and I definitely became a fan. Taken on their own they 100% deserve the hype. He creates a whole universe for you to enter and seeing dozens of his paintings throughout his whole career you can what a phenomenal achievement the realisation of his vision is. As far as the movement and he himself goes I still do think there’s a bit of a whiff of Jim Jones. Some of his acolytes are definitely extremely talented but, even though this goes against the whole philosophy of Kitsch, for me it does get pretty repetitive after a while. How many people wearing those ear flap caps floating around or sticking out of holes in the ground do we need to see? Plus, as I say the whole cult feel of it is just not possible to ignore.

Al that said the bottom line is he is doing at least something to provide an alternative way of thinking to the absolutely wretched state of contemporary art and that deserves to be massively applauded. And it goes without saying that technically it’s absolutely miles better than what passes for painting right now. The philosophy is coherent and is well worth investigating. At this stage any kind of room for something different constitutes a vital life line for anyone even vaguely interested in alternatives and he’s definitely providing that and more. Hail!