RETURN OF THE SUN

19 March 2025

Spent half of the day walking through Berlin with my old friend David. Alexanderplatz. Stacks of personal history. 1992. 2006. 2018. 2022. Blinded by the sun, tumbling forward. Berlin Hautbahnhof. Pret A Manger. Sandwiches. Crisps.

Return of the Sun (Norwegian: Solen vender tilbake) is a 1986 painting by the Norwegian artist Odd Nerdrum. It depicts three young women, two of whom are twins, on a ledge surrounded by peculiar cloud formations. The women's mouths are open as they reach out toward a light source outside of the picture's frame. Their eyes are wide open but completely blank.

The reception of the painting range from optimistic, seeing it as an expression of renewed vitality after the fall of modern civilization, to pessimistic, citing the overall atmosphere, the colour scheme, the abyss in front of the women, and the fact that they are blind and thus cannot actually see the light."Therefore it is warranted to ask which sun Nerdrum has depicted", Vetland wrote, "Is it the life-giving, or the destructive? For Icarus' hubris, to move too close to the sun was imposed with punishment and downfall."