[.ca] Odd Nerdrum: Paintings, Sketches, and Drawings (ISBN 8248901211)

prophet:
Odd Nerdrum is an extra-ordinary painter. He portrays himself as (and may well be) the prophet of painting. In this book we get a close look at some of his work; good detail plates allow examination of his technique. It's a beautiful book with a well written commentary on Nerdrum's life and thinking. Scattered snapshots of nerdrum at work are very enjoyable.

One Story Singer...:
It's difficult not to become sentimental about Odd Nerdrum's work. Of course, that's the idea. If you feel that you've wandered through the sort of strange, barren landscapes he paints, do not be surprised. Nerdrum speaks about his personal life through is obsessively re-worked paintings, some of which have been in production for over a decade. The themes are universal and eternal -- love, loss, paternity, commerce, birth, and death ... This is the greatest collection of Nerdrum's work thus far. My only complaint is I wish there were more drawings featured, but the details of the paintings are so beautiful that I quickly excuse the oversite. I'm a graduate student at the New York Academy of Art, where rendering the figure in the manner of the Old Masters is paramount. Odd Nerdrum is revered among my classmates and myself as more than the greatest living painter in the world -- he truly is the "Prophet of Painting."

Finally - more than just his current paintings!:
If you are interested in Odd Nerdrum, then this is the book to get - full color plates of numerous works are included, as are quite a few of his drawings and sketches, which can be difficult to find. The text is one of the better explanations I have read of the artist's work. Especially nice is to see the chronological collections of some of his series, such as the self portraits and brick paintings. With so many plates to look at over a wide spread of years, it is easy to find continuity and growth, the insight into what drives him, and to have a better look at his earlier work which I was not as familiar with. My only complaint would just be that I want MORE drawings, MORE sketches, and that some of the plates are spread over two pages, which really makes it difficult to enjoy the painting since there is a seam through the middle of it.

Devestating and Essential:
The first thing that strikes me about this book, aside from the paintings themselves, is the illuminating essay by Richard Vine. Mr. Vine, who also penned the essay for "Odd Nerdrum: The Drawings", is unique among those art critics who contemplate the nature of Nerdrum's work and philosophy. Not content to simply regurgitate what has been said about the work and the man, Vine delves into the images with confidently discerning warmth. The best part about Vine's locution is that he exudes integrity of approach, deftly able to ride the fence between partisan praise and aloof observation. This is an important role in the burgeoning comment-mill regarding Nerdrum where the categories seem to be either/or. The second aspect (though intimately related to my first point) that pleases me in this 400-page monolith is its validity in the context of other books on Nerdrum. It would have been very easy for the publishers to simply cover the same territory as in past volumes. Fortunately for those of us who love and study Nerdrum_s work, Gyldendal chose to create a definitive text that brings readers into the Nerdrum mythos from a different angle. This book inhabits a middle ground between the approaches of the two previous major books on Nerdrum, Jan-Erik Ebbestad Hansen_s _Odd Nerdrum: Paintings_ (1994) and Jan Ake Pettersson_s _Odd Nerdrum: Storyteller and Self-Revealer_ (1998), the former being distant and abstract and the latter being intimate and emotional. _Odd Nerdrum: Paintings, Sketches and Drawings_ is a necessary work, filling in holes and fleshing out the aura of our favorite _black sheep_ of painting. And those paintings (this book contains the highest quality reproductions I_ve seen)! One of the main reasons that I continue to buy different books on Nerdrum is that the work continues to change physically. He_s constantly working and reworking. It_s exciting to seek out images that seem different and then pouring over them to find the alterations. Look at the differences between the painting 'Transfiguration' in _Odd Nerdrum: Paintings_ and the updated version in _Odd Nerdrum: Paintings, Sketches and Drawings_. The difference is amazing and that_s only one example of many. But with Nerdrum there is no zero-sum game; he_s always bringing more work to the table, more ideas and more realizations. This book brings out both images from the past that we haven_t seen and new pictures from 2001 which, when considered together, help us to understand the transitions and developments in Odd Nerdrum_s approach to life and painting. Let me finish by saying that anyone interested in seeing Nerdrum_s drawings more closely ought to track down _Odd Nerdrum: The Drawings_ (1994, New Orleans Museum of Art). This small book (65 pages) really should be reissued as it has a brilliant essay and provides a wonderful view of Nerdrum_s process rarely seen. I was able to locate the book through an online out-of-print bookseller and it was worth every penny of the $62.00 I paid for it. In any case, "Odd Nerdrum: Paintings, Sketches and Drawings" is a real treat and a first rate production. At this price the value is incredible. Very much worth the price and essential for Nerdrum followers and art students everywhere.