Odd
Nerdrum is an extraordinarily talented painter, born in Norway in
1944. His work may be viewed at the Metropolitan Museum in New York;
the San Diego Museum in San Diego, California; the Walker Art Museum,
Minneapolis; the Milwaukee Museum of Art, Milwaukee; and the Gothenburg
Museum in Gothenburg, Sweden; as well as the National Gallery in
Oslo, Norway.
Nerdrum
had his first one person gallery exhibition in New York at the Martina
Hamilton Gallery in 1983. Miss Hamilton was the worldwide representative
for Nerdrum for 15 years.
Nerdrum’s
method of painting is an old world discipline of mixing and grinding
his own pigments, stretching his canvas and the exclusive use of
models. He has been using this method since he was 16 years old.
The
imagery in the 6 to 8 paintings produced yearly falls into 3 basic
categories:
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Small
still life paintings which depict a single image such as a
baby, a brick or a set of dentures. These images are never
placed on a table or platform of any kind but rather gain
their stability exclusively through the handling of the media.
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Portraits
and self-portraits - generally without background, dressed
in skins and cloaks from another time.
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Large
scale allegorical paintings which depict a time after our own
civilization. The figures are again dressed as above and the
landscape backgrounds are done from studies made on repeated
trips to Iceland. |
Odd
Nerdrum has an extensive knowledge of art history and an in depth
schooling in philosophy of the ages. He is obsessive about his work,
his ideas, and his politics. All of which have greatly affected
younger painters worldwide.
Paintings
by Odd Nerdrum range in price from $40,000 to $300,000, charcoal
drawings are priced from $15,000 to $40,000, and prints are $7,000.
For
further information, read Odd Nerdrum, a hard cover book
with essay by Donald Kuspit published by Aschenhoug. Available through
Amazon.com or Barnes Noble.
If
you have serious interest in adding an Odd Nerdrum painting to your
collection, please contact Martina Hamilton at 212-722-3311.
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