Norwegian artist Odd Nerdrum is among the most distinguished and disputed figurative painters working in the Old Master tradition today. In Self-Portrait in Armor, Nerdrum visually aligns himself with Rembrandt, whose many self-portraits informed the artist’s repeated investigations of his own likeness.

Indeed, the gleaming golden breastplate he wears materializes a kind of armor against both external and internal battles, from criticism and conformity to psychological turmoil. Combining the high tension and chiaroscuro of Caravaggio’s daring compositions with the tactility and intensity of Rembrandt’s encrusted surfaces, Nerdrum casts himself as a crusader defending and delivering painting from the clutches of modernity.