Ludvig Karsten (1876–1926) was a restless artist both in life and on the canvas. He was almost always on the move, travelling regularly between Norway, Denmark, Spain, Paris and other European cities. His restless pictorial style can be seen in the free, energetic brushwork that characterises much of his work.

The exhibition Restless shows how Karsten experimented with different painting effects and materials. He constantly changed his style, even within the course of a single year. This also applied to his approach to the materiality of a painting, including his use of crudely spliced canvases, overpainting, altered dimensions, and blurring the distinction between canvas and frame.  

Karsten’s artistry has been judged in different ways – even his position in the history of Norwegian art is unstable. Praised in his own lifetime, he was the object of high expectations. After his death he was almost forgotten, only to be rediscovered in the 1970s.  

Throughout the exhibition you will encounter intimate interiors and still lifes, portraits of friends, family and film stars, creative homages to old masters such as Rembrandt, Bassano and Watteau, naked bodies and atmospheric depictions of the great outdoors. Featuring more than 70 paintings, Restless is one of the largest surveys of Karsten’s work in over a century. This is a unique opportunity to become better acquainted with one of the Nordics’ most enigmatic and fascinating modern artists.

The works are drawn from the Stenersen collection at MUNCH, as well as loans from the National Museum, Kode, Lillehammer kunstmuseum, Trondheim kunstmuseum, Oseana, Statens Museum for Kunst, Ystad konstmuseum, and various private collections.