Man Bitten by a Snake 1992

Odd Nerdrum, sometime in the last few decades, painted these three naked guys with oil on canvas. The paint is laid on thick, so thick I can almost smell it. It’s like he's building up the image, carving it out of the darkness. The palette is muted, kind of brown and muddy, yet there's a strange beauty in the tones of the flesh and the ominous mood it conveys. I can see the painter’s hand in those sweeping brushstrokes, in the way he's sculpted those figures out of the gloom. I wonder if Nerdrum was thinking about the old masters when he made this, like Caravaggio. Maybe he was trying to bring some of that drama and intensity into our own messed-up world. He might have wanted to conjure something timeless, a fable about pain, loss, and friendship. Because isn't that what painting is all about? Reaching out across time, from one artist to another, one person to another, trying to make sense of it all.