Odd Nerdrum

Raab Gallery, Berlin, where acquired by David Bowie

Paris, Gerald Piltzer Galerie, Odd Nerdrum, 1994;
Oslo, Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Odd Nerdrum, 1998.

Jan-Erik Hansen, Odd Nerdrum: Malerier, Oslo, 1994, illustrated p.207;
Jan Pettersson, Odd Nerdrum: Storyteller and Self-Revealer, Oslo, 1999, no.50, illustrated p.109;
Odd Nerdrum, Odd Nerdrum: Temaer: Malerier, Tegninger, Grafikk Og Skulpturer, Oslo, 2007, illustrated p.551;
Richard Vine, Inger Schjoldager, and Louisa Charles, The Nerdrum School: The Master and His Students, Stockholm, 2013, illustrated p.6 (detail) and illustrated p.196;
Barbara Vetland, Tidloes Omsorg: Mor Og Barn-Motivet I Odd Nerdrums Malerier: Et Essay, Oslo, 2013, illustrated p.23.

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate. Condition: This work is in very good condition. There is some wear along the edges with associated small losses in places, mainly towards the upper edge. No restoration is apparent when examined under ultraviolet light.
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Exhibited at the artist’s prestigious solo exhibition at the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art in Oslo in 1998, and reproduced repeatedly in the body of literature on the artist, Dawn perfectly encapsulates Odd Nerdrum’s unique painterly style and aesthetic.

At a time when conceptual and abstract art was favoured throughout the art world, Odd Nerdrum returned to the techniques of painters like Rembrandt and Caravaggio, who are amongst his earliest influences. In stark contrast to the work of his post-war contemporaries, the Norwegian artist favoured traditional craftsmanship and subjects, which limited his output to a small number of paintings each year and set him apart from mainstream contemporary art history. With his manifesto ‘On Kitsch’, Nerdrum argued for a return to painting as craftsmanship rather than the conceptual practice that art has come to be identified with.

With this highly unorthodox approach, Odd Nerdrum’s enigmatic paintings explore unresolved narratives that invite comparisons with surrealist artists. In Dawn, four identical half-naked male figures, strangely dressed in black cloaks and peculiar headwear, dominate the foreground. Their bodies are imbued with great quiet and stillness, yet the slightly distorted and highly tense posture of the four unleashes an unnerving dynamic of a mute suffering.  Bluntly exposed bare skin of the limbs is juxtaposed with the invisible upper body, hidden away under black cloth, as if creating a surreal vision. Odd Nerdrum’s landscape backgrounds, although dreamlike, convey a strong sense of realism – the studies for the painting were made by the artist on his repeated trips to Iceland.

Perfectly capturing Odd Nerdrum’s signature aesthetic in its surrealist composition that is executed with the skill of an old master painter, Dawn is an iconic work from one of today’s most enigmatic painters, and refuses classification within the categories of contemporary art.