Dawn (1990) by the Norwegian painter Odd Nerdrum (1944).
This painting has always fascinated me since I saw it in the film The Cell (2000) by Tarsem Singh. Not the painting, but the painting-coming-to-life in a very surrealistic and eery scene in the film. It is said that Singh once saw the canvas at David Bowie’s house who bought the piece in 1990, and then used it in his debut film.
I always thought that Bowie made a reference to this painting as well in his video of Jump They Say (1992), directed by Mark Romanek, where we also see three similar looking ladies acting kinda weird, but perhaps that’s a stretch, ‘cause these women are also an homage to the stewardesses in the Pan-Am space plane in Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.
When Bowie passed away this year, the painting was displayed and auctioned at Sotheby’s in London and I was fortunate enough to have had a long and very extensive close look at the canvas. I don’t know who bought the painting for 341.000 punds (425.000 dollars), but I sure as hell hope I can see it again once in a museum. It’s such an amazing piece of work that raises hundreds of questions, like any good work of art should.
