Lars von Trier curates ‘Descendant,’ tracing the Nordic artists behind his cinematic vision

On view at Willumsens Museum in Frederikssund, Denmark, from June 6th to September 20th, 2026, Descendant offers a rare glimpse into the artistic world that shaped Lars von Trier. Curated by the celebrated filmmaker, the exhibition brings together Nordic painters and sculptors whose imagery, atmosphere, and emotional intensity have left a lasting imprint on his cinema. Following its Danish presentation, the exhibition travels to Thiel Gallery in Stockholm, where it will run from October 10th, 2026, to January 24th, 2027.

A personal cartography of the art behind Lars von Trier’s cinema

Instead of revisiting his films, von Trier turns to the artists who have fuelled his imagination since adolescence. Works by Vilhelm Hammershøi, Edvard Munch, August Strindberg, Carl Fredrik Hill, Per Kirkeby, J. F. Willumsen, Ejnar Nielsen, Rudolph Tegner, Gustav Vigeland, and Paul Gauguin form what he calls his artistic “family.”

The exhibition centres on Hammershøi’s monumental Five Portraits (1902), a painting that inspired von Trier to travel to Stockholm at just nineteen. Around this pivotal work, paintings and sculptures reveal recurring themes, visual echoes, and emotional currents that later found their way into his films.

From Nordic painting to the language of film

Across more than four decades, Lars von Trier has shaped contemporary cinema with works including The Kingdom, Dancer in the Dark, Dogville, Melancholia, and Nymphomaniac. Throughout his career, painting has remained a vital source of visual and emotional inspiration.

Descendant reveals how Hammershøi’s silent interiors, Munch’s psychological intensity, Hill’s dreamlike imagery, and Strindberg’s expressive vision informed von Trier’s cinematic vocabulary. Accompanied by newly commissioned texts by Karl Ove Knausgård, Lilian Munk Rösing, Erik Steffensen, Annette Rosenvold Hvidt, Anne Gregersen, and Lars von Trier, the exhibition offers a compelling portrait of the artistic lineage behind one of modern cinema’s most distinctive voices.