Odd Nerdrum
Painter of the North
Odd Nerdrum
Heavily influenced by classical painters like Rembrandt and Caravaggio, Odd Nerdrum (b. 1944) has become one of the most accomplished Norwegian painters since Edvard Munch (1864–1944). A defining moment in his early years was seeing Rembrandt’s painting The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis in the National Museum of Fine Arts in Stockholm. This consolidated his artistic route, bringing him into opposition with the understanding of art among his contemporaries. “to make a long story short, I would paint myself into isolation,” he later acknowledged. But isolation from contemporaries was swapped for the company of classical masters. Other influences on his work are Masaccio, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Titian, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Goya, Chardin and Millet, as well as the less apparent Henry Fuseli, Caspar David Friedrich, Ferdinand Hodler, Edvard Munch, Käthe Kollwitz, Salvador Dalí, Chaďm Soutine and Lars Hertervig.
