January 09, 2004

Paintings by contemporary surrealist Odd Nerdrum are enigmatic and intriguing.
posted by beeswacky 20 years ago
  • he seemed to be stuck on self-portraits in '98-'99! good stuff...
  • [banana]
  • A fair amount of modern painters paint from photographs, or from interior still lifes, or posed models in a studio, or some mixture of the three. I remember looking at a book on Nerdrum that showed how he goes about painting. He is very committed to painting from life as much as possible, and the use of natural light. The book had these photographs of elaborate setups outside on what looked like the beach in Norway. The light will have different qualities at different times and Nerdrum has to work around this to produce the sensitive light in the paintings. I tried to find some photos of this, and I couldn't. I did find this description of some of his technique. After reading it all I can say is intense
  • On a strange note the painting Dawn is alluded to in the movie The Cell during one scene. Apparently, we have David Bowie to blame/thank for that (The Sept 16th entry about halfway down the page is the one too look at.).
  • Yes, his techniques are classic in style. With regard to the grinding of pigments -- well, I don't believe this to be very common nowadays, (though I hope I'm wrong). My exposure to technique as a student was via a history of art class, but the prof was from Spain. Also one other class where we were taught a little about using egg to make our own gesso for purposes of illumination by a painter who'd studied in Paris early in the 20th century. I've felt the lack.
  • Weird, somehow I didn't notice this post until now. I posted more links about Nerdrum on MeFi earlier today.
  • Good post, beeswacky.
  • Oil painting with a lightly disturbing garnish. Perhaps lemon? Nice.