Editing Odd Nerdrum (section)

{{Short description|Norwegian figurative painter (born 1944)}}
{{Infobox artist
| name          = Odd Nerdrum
| image         = Odd Nerdrum 2020 2.jpg
| image_upright = 
| caption       = Nerdrum at [[Gallen-Kallela Museum]], Finland in 2020
| alt           = 
| birth_name    =
| birth_date    = {{Birth date and age|df=y|1944|4|8}}
| birth_place   = [[Helsingborg]], [[Sweden]]
| death_date    =
| death_place   =
| nationality   = [[Swedes|Swedish]]-[[Norway|Norwegian]]
| field         = [[Painting]]
| training      = [[Joseph Beuys]]
| movement      = [[Kitsch movement]]
| works         =
| patrons       =
| awards        =
}}

'''Odd Nerdrum''' (born 8 April 1944) is a  Norwegian [[Figurative art|figurative]] [[painting|painter]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Brock |first1=Chris |title='Odd' squad: Black River native apprentices to a master painter |url=https://www.nny360.com/artsandlife/artsandentertainment/odd-squad-black-river-native-apprentices-to-a-master-painter/article_cc851466-1e0d-58e3-95dd-95cd6b08a891.html |website=NNY 360 |date=12 March 2020 |publisher=Watertown Daily Times and Northern New York Newspapers |access-date=14 October 2020}}</ref> A controversial figure in Norway, he is known for his anti-modernist stance. Themes and style in Nerdrum's work reference [[anecdote]] and [[narrative]]. Primary influences by the painters [[Rembrandt]] and [[Caravaggio]] help place his work in direct conflict with [[abstract art|abstraction]] and [[conceptual art]]. They include [[still life]] paintings of small, everyday objects, portraits and self-portraits, and large paintings [[Allegory|allegorical]] and [[Apocalypse|apocalyptic]] in nature. The figures in Nerdrum's paintings are often dressed as if from another time and place.<ref name=Hamilton>{{cite web |last=Hamilton |first=Martina |title=About Odd Nerdrum |url=http://www.oddnerdrum.com/frame_odd.html |access-date=16 April 2012}}</ref> His work has largely been met with negative criticism from Norwegian art critics. Art critic Stig Andersen described Nerdrum as the leader of an "authoritarian personality cult" and his audience as an "uneducated, narrow-minded bourgeoisie," representing "the triumph of [[popular culture]] over art."<ref>''[[Aftenposten]] 2011-08-19 p. 1</ref>

Nerdrum was educated at [[Oslo Waldorf School]] and later at the [[Oslo National Academy of the Arts|Art Academy of Oslo]]. Disillusioned with the art form taught at the academy and with modern art in general Nerdrum began to teach himself to paint in a [[post-modern]] style with Rembrandt and Caravaggio as influences. In 1965, he began a several-months study with the German artist [[Joseph Beuys]]. In ''Fenomenet Nerdrum'' [The Nerdrum Phenomenon], Jan-Erik Ebbestad Hansen traces Nerdrum's sense of belonging in older cultural traditions, his skepticism toward a rationality that rejects the spiritual in nature and humanity, and his aversion to modern technology and ways of life, back to the influence of anthroposophy.<ref>Jan-Erik Ebbestad Hansen, ''Fenomenet Nerdrum'', Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, 1996, ISBN 9788205244924</ref>

Nerdrum says that his art should be understood as kitsch rather than art as such. ''On Kitsch'', a manifesto composed by Nerdrum, describes the distinction he makes between kitsch and art.<ref name="Boise Weekly">{{cite news |last=Pettinger |first=E.J. |title=The Kitsch Campaign |url=http://www.boiseweekly.com/boise/the-kitsch-campaign/Content?oid=926148 |access-date=30 December 2012 |newspaper=Boise Weekly |date=29 December 2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120407050738/http://www.boiseweekly.com/boise/the-kitsch-campaign/Content?oid=926148 |archive-date=7 April 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
Nerdrum's philosophy spawned the [[Kitsch movement]] among his students and followers, who call themselves kitsch painters rather than artists.