Member previewLudvig Karsten
Before the official opening of new exhibitions, we invite our members to a preview!
You are welcome to experience the exhibition on your own first. Every hour you will have the opportunity to attend a short and inspiring introduction by our art mediator, always at quarter past the hour (16:15, 17:15, 18:15).
Ludvig Karsten (1876–1926) was a restless artist both in life and on 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.
MUNCH deli & café is open and offers one free tea or coffee to our members all day, as well as a 10% discount on food and drink.
Not a member? Check if a membership is something for you!
©Kode, Ludvig Karsten, Rødt hår, 1907, olje på lerret.
