Sleeping Couple 1991

Odd Nerdrum painted this piece, Sleeping Couple, in oil, but sometime in the last century I’d guess, give or take. Nerdrum likes to bring drama, and his brushstrokes feel like they're sculpting light and shadow as much as applying colour. Take a look at the figures; they're pale, almost luminous, against a dark, murky ground. The paint looks thick and creamy, like he’s really pushing the material around. I imagine Nerdrum layering and blending to create that soft, almost dreamlike quality. The way he models the flesh, with those subtle shifts in tone, reminds me a bit of classical painting, like Rembrandt maybe. Then, bam! Above the horizon, that strange, pyramid shape looms, casting a weird, unsettling glow. Nerdrum sets up a dialogue between the old and the new, or maybe the timeless and the unsettling. What does it all mean? Who knows! But I'm thinking about this one for a while.