Odd Nerdrum

Odd Nerdrum (born 8 April 1944) is a Norwegian figurative painter. A controversial figure in Norway, he is known for his anti-modernist stance while he is also admired internationally for his skill and technique, as well as his extraordinary subject matter. Themes and style in Nerdrum's work reference anecdote and narrative. Primary influences by the painters Rembrandt and Caravaggio help place his work in direct conflict with abstraction and conceptual art. Works include still life paintings of small, everyday objects, portraits and self-portraits, and large paintings allegorical and apocalyptic in nature. The figures in Nerdrum's paintings are often dressed as if from another time and place. Nerdrum was educated at Oslo Waldorf School and later at the Art Academy of Oslo. Disillusioned with the art form taught at the academy and with modern art in general Nerdrum began to teach himself to paint in a post-modern style with Rembrandt and Caravaggio as influences. In 1965, he began a several-months study with the German artist Joseph Beuys. In Fenomenet Nerdrum [The Nerdrum Phenomenon], Jan-Erik Ebbestad Hansen traces Nerdrum's sense of belonging in older cultural traditions, his skepticism toward a rationality that rejects the spiritual in nature and humanity, and his aversion to modern technology and ways of life, back to the influence of anthroposophy. Nerdrum says that his art should be understood as kitsch rather than art as such. On Kitsch, a manifesto composed by Nerdrum, describes the distinction he makes between kitsch and art. Nerdrum's philosophy spawned the Kitsch movement among his students and followers, who call themselves kitsch painters rather than artists.