"Source"

left: Homage a New York 1996
sheep blood, sweat and chalk on paper

right: Bird-like Breastbone 1993
in collaboration with Lars Abrahamsen
painted poplar wood

John Olsen is certainly not someone who consults the television to get to grips with reality. He prefers to experience nature at first hand, and to be present in it all year round. It is just outside his windows, as a condition of the life he has chosen for himself.

---all text after "Death in Venice" by Mikael Wivel, an essay that accompanied Olsen's exhibition at the 1995 Venice Biennale.