alone). Even one of the shaman figures Nerdrum paints has a rifle rest-
ing on his lap (Revier[1985–98]). There apparently is no gun control in
the world of Nerdrum’s imagination. In European terms, one could
offer no more convincing evidence of the absence of the state in his
mature paintings.^54 In his sharpest departure from the modern world of
the administered state, Nerdrum evokes a realm where men—and
women, too—must rely on themselves and their own arms (Armed
Woman[1986–93]). With the state no longer there to protect them, they
must be ever vigilant and prepared to defend themselves. Nerdrum does
not present this situation as particularly attractive or desirable, but he
does seem to be suggesting that it reveals something about human
nature which modern society tries to ignore and obscure. For Nerdrum,
humanity seems to be defined in extremisand one finds out the nature
of human beings only when they have their backs to the wall and are
forced to fight for their existence. In particular, these paintings uncover
a toughness and aggressiveness in human beings that is the very oppo-
site of the spirit of the nanny state and everything it stands for. Nerdrum
seems to be suggesting that modernity ignores and tries to repress this
aspect of human nature at its peril.^55 He speaks of one his paintings
(Twilight[1981]) as “a tribute to the natural, the true human being
whom we all fear.”^56 He says of the people he paints: “They exist in a
greater world than our own.... What our world has relieved us of is
what they live in.”^57
In view of the emphasis on strength and self-reliance in Nerdrum’s
mature paintings, one might attempt a description of his artistic project
in Nietzschean terms. His early paintings portray the modern world of
slave morality; his later paintings portray an ancient world of master
morality. Most commentators agree that one of the most important
paintings that inaugurates the major phase of Nerdrum’s career is Iron
Law(1983–84), and it seems to depict the emergence of the master-slave
relationship, the moment when the slave acknowledges the master. The
bowing figure on the left appears to be submitting to the domineering
figure on the right, who threatens to beat him with a stick (in the distant
background, a third man turns his back on the whole affair). Nerdrum
seems to be suggesting that society originates in an act of violent mas-
tery. This is the archetypal moment that begins human history according
to Hegel in his Phenomenology of Spirit. In the struggle for recognition,
two men fight to the death for the sake of pure prestige. One persists and
the other gives up in this deadly struggle, because one values honor
more than life, and the other values life more than honor. The first
becomes the master, and the second the slave (exactly what seems to be
The Importance of Being Odd 31