Nerdrum evokes in these paintings, he takes us back to the world of the
Norse sagas, where tribe is pitted against tribe in endless and bitter
feuds.^47 Nerdrum’s paintings often focus on a single figure against a
bleak background. At most he shows five or six figures in a given paint-
ing, so reduced has society become in the world of his imagination.^48
And even when Nerdrum portrays a group of figures in a painting, he
rarely shows them relating to each other.^49 Sometimes they are staring
off into space (Dawn[1990]; Wanderers by the Sea[2000]); sometimes
they are sleeping while only one is awake (The Night Guard[1986–88]);
sometimes they are simply looking past each other (The Water
Guardians [1985–93]; Five Namegivers[1994]). Even when Nerdrum’s
figures are together, they appear to be alone, and if they do relate to each
other, it is often with hostility and outright violence (Woman Killing
Injured Man[1994]).
Thus the world Nerdrum creates in his paintings is the very opposite
of everything we picture when we speak today of the “nanny state.”
There are no institutions to take care of Nerdrum’s figures from the cra-
dle to the grave—no institutions to feed them, to clothe them, to house
them, to school them, to provide for their old age, to hospitalize them,
or—one might add—to imprison them. They are radically on their own.
The cradle and the grave are very much present in Nerdrum’s paintings,
but his characters must find their way from one to the other by them-
selves and without any guidance or help from the state. Hence,
Nerdrum’s characters are perpetually on guard—their most characteris-
tic stance is watching, ever on the lookout for an enemy to emerge on
the horizon. In the hostile world Nerdrum evokes, his characters appear
to be permanently under threat, and sadly exposed to danger. They are
often naked, or barely clothed, and when we see them sleeping out in the
open and unprotected, we have to wonder how they will survive the night
(Sleeping Twins[1987]). The number of characters who are wounded,
mutilated, and crippled is testimony to the reality of the dangers they
face (The One-Armed Aviator [1987–97]; Unarmed Man[1995]; Pissing
Woman[1997–98]).^50
Nerdrum’s characters are nomads, ever on the march, moving
through a bleak landscape that offers little to sustain them. They do not
lead the pastoral existence often portrayed by painters trying to evoke a
state of nature. They do not enjoy the luxury of lush farmland and an
abundance of crops. Seeds appear to be precious in this world, and must
be guarded carefully (The Seed Protectors[1987–96]; Man With Seed
Corn[1985–93]). Any sign of plant life in this barren land must be treas-
ured, and Nerdrum portrays a boy holding onto a sprouting twig as if it
The Importance of Being Odd 29