In late 2026, Kunstsilo will open a major retrospective exhibition dedicated to Leonard Rickhard (1945–2024) – one of Norway’s most influential painters of the post-war period. For the first time, Rickhard’s artistic practice will be presented in its entirety to audiences in Southern Norway.
The exhibition brings together both well-known series of motifs and more rarely shown works. These range from the distinctive landscapes and light studies of inner Agder to military barracks, sand and gravel pits, rusting trucks, and abandoned machines. Rickhard’s motifs often originate in his own childhood memories, observations, and traces of the Second World War. Recurring subjects such as the military barrack and the model aircraft builder create a distinctive balance between the everyday and the enigmatic, the precise and the poetically inquisitive.
Through close collaboration with the artist Jan Freuchen, as well as writer and widow Berit Rickhard, Kunstsilo has gained access to an extensive archive and studio material: sketchbooks, notes, scrapbooks, and photo albums that have previously been rarely shown. This offers visitors a unique opportunity to gain insight into Rickhard’s working process – methodical, slow, and marked by great care for the inner structure of the motif – and reveals previously unknown aspects of his artistic practice. The exhibition also includes several works that the artist painted specifically with Kunstsilo in mind.