Self-Portrait 

Editor: Here we have Odd Nerdrum’s oil painting, “Self-Portrait." The impasto is intense and the redness radiating around the neck immediately strikes me, lending a dramatic intensity to an otherwise subdued expression. What feelings or ideas surface for you when you view it? Curator: Well, for me, Nerdrum’s portraits are always such intriguing journeys, aren't they? It’s like peering into a dimly lit theatre, watching a one-person show. The romantic and realist tension he conjures…he is so good at it!. He's both there and not, if you catch my meaning. You said dramatic intensity...what creates that feeling for you? Is it the painterly approach, or more the composition? Editor: I think it is how the vivid, roughened red pops against the very dark background. Curator: Yes, and isn't that fascinating? It’s a visual paradox! It suggests both lifeblood and a looming, unknowable something...Like memory itself, shimmering at the edge of understanding. Do you sense any deliberate art historical connections? Any Rembrandtesque mood? Editor: Absolutely. The way the face emerges from the dark does remind me of Rembrandt. And I noticed the listing classifies it as romanticist, like some Delacroix painting... Curator: Yes! And there’s a touch of Caravaggio in there, no? That push and pull of light. Considering it all, you might agree that the "Self-Portrait," isn’t simply *him* captured in paint. It’s all of art history swirling in a moment. We look at Odd Nerdrum looking at himself...Looking at art itself. How wonderfully self-indulgent...but hey, its self portrait! Editor: That’s so beautifully put. Now I'm just thinking about art constantly gazing back at itself, borrowing features from all time. Curator: That’s it exactly. That's what art is, and this artist's visual drama lets us feel it in our guts. It really makes one think.