Nerdrum apparently was quoted as saying - in addition to naming himself "The King of Kitsch" - the four things missing from Contemporary Art include:
1. The open, trustful face,
2. The sensual skin,
3. Golden sunsets, and
4. The longing for eternity.
Isn't it the ultimate post-modernist irony that these are the sources of pleasure in writers that come from repressed cultures. I am thinking of work by certain openly gay and good poets whose work openly craves and celebrates one to all of the above. To make public work that is openly transgressive - in terms of what was previously taboo to celebrate - is obviously liberating and, implicitly, a shove against those social forces that were agents of the taboo.
Yet, the post-modernist awareness of, say, the pollutants that inform colorful sunsets, makes one suspicious of these 'pleasures' without submitting the work to a wide horizon of environmental, psychological background, etc. inspection, let along the suspicion surrounding the 'truth' of most language in general. The post-modernist impulse is to turn upside down and investigate the entrails of all those 'classic' pictures.
Nerdrum strikes me as using the tools and historical masters with great skill (the shock of a superior sense of mimesis), while making me wonder, in a similar vein, how Sarah Palin captured the country for a minute with that gee whiz 50's high school prom queen familiarity. The post-modernist Tina Fey nailed Palin (mimetically) to the Cross. (Unavoidable use of religious imagery required with Sarah P.)(!)
I do appreciate Nerdrum's honesty and vigor as a self-advocate in the face of folks who opposed his work (clearly 'jerks '!)
Stephen
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