The dialogue with our own times is prophane and victories are local. The goals are in the eyes of others. They are making themselves up and hiding from each other. But the free spirit is nowhere to be seen.

They see only what the present time has instructed them to observe in the free spirit. Only when released from time, we are close to a fair evaluation. The best in art is called timeless.

(…) By virtue of the indefinite longing that no tidal spirit can break, the image-making ability is always present. It is a European arrogance to believe that it can be wiped out only because of electronic art forms, which in turn lose their presence when the power goes off.

(…) They say that art reflects one’s own time. What poverty! One’s own limited time within a local area? In northern Siberia where the nomads live; what is 1988 for them? They do not have electricity. They live in no time – these “time-innocents”.

Such examples mean freedom. Freedom to create the final image. The last vision before we die.

We are timeless – if we dare.

By painter Odd Nerdrum, excerpt from article in Anniversary Tribute to Johan Kvandal on the occasion of his 70th birthday