The National Museum of Art in Norway
Time: 5 July 2022
Location: Oslo, Norway
On the 5th of July we visited The National Museum of Art in Norway in Oslo. From 2019 the National Museum was temporary closed. It was opened again on June 2022. At the same time was opened and the new Edvard Munch Museum in Oslo, or “Munch” – a museum of poor architecture both inside and out. Who designed this hopeless structure? Who cares. Bad things have no authors.
If we talk about The National Museum – it is also in old style building, I am sorry. And Norway is very rich country to build something extra modern in the 21st century. But the museum looks worse than “Bonn Art Museum” in Germany, which was designed by the Berlin architect Axel Schultes and opened in 1992. However, the collection of the National Museum is interesting with classics of Norwegian art, contemporary art and excellent educational “corners”. Also, it has maybe the best paintings of Edvard Munch, like “The Scream”, which original is very sensitive and absolutely different from what we know from the internet.
Edvard Munch “The Scream”. 1893. Fragment
In The National Museum opened interesting educative exhibition “East of the Sun and West of the Moon” till 30 December 2022. The interactive exhibition shows a selection of drawings by Erik Werenskiold and Theodor Kittelsen done around 150 years ago as illustrations for Norwegian fairy tales.
“East of the Sun and West of the Moon”
Short info about The National Museum of Art in Norway:
“When it was created in 1837, Norway’s first public art museum was named the National Museum. For a brief period it was known as the Norwegian State Central Museum of Fine Art, before being renamed the National Gallery. The 2003 merger of the National Gallery, the Museum of Architecture, the Museum of Decorative Arts and Design, and the Museum of Contemporary Art was the occasion for a new title: the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design. The new name indicates an expanded field of operation while also pointing back to the museum’s origins.”
“The museum offers a range of exhibitions showing Norwegian and international art, architecture and design, both at its venues in Oslo and elsewhere in Norway in conjunction with its nationwide touring programme, and abroad.”
https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/en/about-the-national-museum/
Prof. Kestutis Vasiliunas
© Photos: Kestutis Vasiliunas
© Artist’s Book Creators 2022
