When Kunstnernes Hus wishes Rudolph Thygesen a warm welcome as an exhibitor, it is in the awareness that it is the eternal youth that moves in. For this 70-year-old is younger than all of us, full of energy, will to develop - and disrespect.

In his young years, his specialty was to shock the good bourgeoisie by his highly personal lifestyle - he was a treasured member of the Kristiania Bohème which died out during the First World War. But he shocked first and foremost all who were interested in art - including his colleagues - by his truly daring way of solving the artistic problems.

He did not become like his contemporary students of Matisse, but on his own he invented a style where the color and the rhythmically decorative structure of the painting surface meant everything. Later he has followed this line consistently, soon in refined sophistication, soon in a primitive, simplified form where the color sings in a highly happy tone, but can also turn into mournful minor tones.

The exhibition that can be seen here gives an overview of the 70-year-old painter's large production. It will give his old admirers the opportunity to see masterpieces that have long been hidden, but it will also show new works that will stick just as strongly in the memory - and it will first and foremost be an experience for the young people who have not previously had the opportunity to get to know Thygesen, the old and the always young Thygesen.

The board of directors of Kunstnernes Hus.