The Norwegian current, the neo-realist-romanticists became much debated in the press. During the exhibition in Södertälje konsthall, several reviews were written. The art gallery invited art critics and audiences to a debate under the heading “RENEWAL through tradition or REACTIONARY?”. The discussion leaders were Harald Flor from Dagbladet Oslo, Beate Sydhoff from Svenska Dagbladet and Bengt Olvång from Aftonbladet. Art curator Per Drougge welcomes you via a letter and entices with “Afternoon meal with beer and sandwich”.

In the catalogue, Drougge describes the preface “They have been compared to the” pre-Raphaelites “in the middle of the 19th century – they could perhaps be called” premodernists “or perhaps even” premunchians “!.

Of the six artists, Odd Nedrum is highlighted a little extra by the press. You notice a search for historical references. As in Gunnar Hellman’s review in Storstaden, 21 February 1974. “The most interesting acquaintance seems to me to be 29-year-old Odd Nedrum. He can be objective like the French classicist David and warm and sweeping like Frans Hals. In the sensual nude study “Kristin” we are reminded both of Rembrandt’s “Bathing Woman” in the National Gallery in London and of John-e. Franzén’s “Ulrika” (1965) at the Museum of Modern Art. Beate Sydhoff (SVD 23 / 2-74) calls him: “One of the most interesting and at the same time most puzzling painters is Odd Nedrum, who also inspires such 17th century goals as Frans Hals and Caravaggio to create a dramatic and clairvoyant. painting in large format, shocking and coquettish at the same time. ”.

Another reference is 19th century painting, such as Delacroix. Gunnar Hellman writes “Rolf Groven’s great painting” Freedom leads the people “is not a copy of Delacroix” Freedom on the Barricade “. But thanks to Delacroix, the artist has in a partly new way been able to transfer his experiences of the Vietnam War in a “form” that we can all recognize. The French Marianne with her bare breasts has been transformed into a buttoned-up Vietnamese goddess of freedom and the tricolor has been replaced with the North Vietnamese flag. ”.

Odd Nerdrum, Rolf Groven, Per Christiansen, Karl Erik Harr, Leif Lundgren and Terje Moe.

Sources: Exhibition catalog, press material from the archive, compiled by Anneli Karlsson