ODD NERDRUM

"Odd Nerdrum was born in Hälsingborg, Sweden in 1944. He was a student at The Academy of Art in Oslo at the time when Modernism made its delayed entry to Norway. During a study trip to Stockholm organized by the academy, he broke out from the group of students who had gathered round the works of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein in the Museum of Modern Art. Nerdrum headed off  to the Rembrandt Hall in The National Museum and was standing spellbound in front of Claudius Civilis. It was a turning point  in his life and he decided to learn painting in the manner of Rembrandt.

The decision immediately brought him into conflict with the students and professors of the academy. None of them mastered the old techniques and all of them thought his project was reactionary and obnoxious.  He left the academy and started to study the old masters.

Nerdrum felt a particular affinity to Caravaggio as well as Rembrandt.  Caravaggio, because of the realism and implacable, dramatic temperament reflected in his works, and Rembrandt for his picturesque substance and patience with man. The two extremes would later shape the elasticity in the universe of Nerdrum´s pictures."

( Nerdrum Institute)