Odd Nerdrum on Kitsch, Germanism, and Painting as a Call to Climb Uphill

Odd Nerdrum, the Norwegian painter known for his figurative and mythologically charged works, discusses his practice in an interview coinciding with his exhibition "Crime and Refuge" at Booth Gallery in New York (through July 30, 2016). Nerdrum describes his lifelong dedication to drawing and painting, rooted in the language of the Italian Renaissance. He rejects the label of discipline, calling himself an abominable and rebellious student. On founding his own school and museum at age 18, he frames it as a matter of blood and nonconformism, having felt old after reading much of European literature. He criticizes modern art academies as controlled by "Germanism," a concept he links to Kantian and Hegelian philosophy that he claims nearly won World War II. He associates the term "kitsch" with Aristotle and ancient Greek techne, arguing that modernism's failure to surpass Greek standards represents a German aesthetic revenge. Nerdrum states he does not work to conquer his time but for eternal values inherited from the Greeks' cyclical time, opposing the linear metaphysical dimension of Germanism. He cites "pornographic images of the great masters" as his major influence, preferring Titian, Poussin, and Correggio over actual pornography. His art, he says, is an invitation to walk uphill, following Brahms, Rembrandt, and Marlow, urging viewers to pursue difficult chimeras and acquire a second sight rather than chasing fame.