Galleri F 15 presents a major retrospective exhibition on Ragnhild Keyser (1888-1943), one of Norway’s pioneering modernists.
Featuring more than one hundred works, the exhibition includes primarily paintings, as well as drawings and sketchbooks. It also presents works by artists who have been inspired by, or engage in dialogue with, Keyser’s artistic practice.
The exhibition highlights her pioneering contribution to abstract art, with particular emphasis on works from the 1920s. During this period, Keyser was part of the Parisian avant-garde, a milieu shaped by leading figures such as Pablo Picasso, Fernand Léger, Amédée Ozenfant, and Sonia and Robert Delaunay. Influenced in part by Cubism, Keyser developed her own distinctive abstract visual language, establishing her as a key figure in Norwegian modernism and within a broader European art historical context.
Top photo: Ragnhild Keyser. Private archive.
Ragnhild Keyser died at the age of only fifty-four and did not live to see the recognition she would later receive. Nevertheless, she left behind a remarkable body of work and an extensive archive that continues to be the subject of research in Norway and internationally.
The exhibition also includes works and presentations by contemporary artists Dag Erik Elgin, Arne Malmedal, Anders Sletvold Moe, Eline Mugaas, David Salle, and Marthe Elise Stramrud, all of whom have, in various ways, drawn inspiration from Keyser’s work. In addition, works by her colleague and friend Charlotte Wankel (1888-1969) are on view.
The exhibition brings together many of Keyser’s major works through loans from the Firestorm Foundation, Kunstsilo / Tangen-samlingen and Sørlandssamlingen, the National Museum of Norway, Northern Norwegian Art Museum, the Storebrand Art Collection, Yale University Art Gallery, as well as various private collections.
The exhibition is curated by art historian Hilde Mørch, who has researched Ragnhild Keyser’s artistic practice for several decades. In 1999, Galleri F 15 presented the exhibition Ragnhild Keyser: From Planar Cubism to Naturalism, also curated by Mørch.
The exhibition is accompanied by the book Ragnhild Keyser: Kristiania – Paris – New York – Oslo (Forlaget Press, 2026) written by Hilde Mørch.
