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Born in 1944, the Norwegian Ørnulf Opdahl is one of the most important painters working in Scandinavia today. He is strongly influenced by the sublime coastal landscape of his native West Norway. His mood paintings of the North, with their colours like dying embers of a fire – glowing umber, the greys of ashes and charcoal blacks, often have a sense of imminence. However, his potentially menacing landscapes can also resemble paradise on earth, of winter nights emanating light, of skies irradiated by stars; a cosmic reminder of infinity and an intimation of mortality.
Opdahl’s powerfully scaled, lyrically charged work draws upon and develops stimulating currents from both his own Norwegian landscape tradition and the philosophical concerns of much post-1945 abstract art.

Image: Easter Morning 2009 Oil on canvas 130 x 120 cm copyright the artist