The artwork titled “Dust Lickers,” created by Odd Nerdrum in 2005, belongs to the Neo-baroque art movement and is categorized under the genre of symbolic painting.
In the artwork, two figures can be observed lying prone on the ground, their faces close to the soil, as if licking the dust. The scene is bathed in muted earth tones, with the figures’ forms subtly blending into the surrounding, barren landscape. The background depicts a stark, desolate terrain under a gloomy, twilight sky, accentuating the symbolic nature of the painting. This evocative piece conveys a sense of existential struggle and forlorn desolation, characteristic of Nerdrum’s profound and often unsettling thematic explorations.
