A Tour of Norway’s New Nasjonalmuseet

Where?

Moving from four premises spread across town (with art housed near the parliament), Norway’s national collection of art and artefacts have been consolidated in a new, vast complex on Aker Brygge. The new sustainable building also includes a library and spaces for temporary exhibitions on the top floor. From the outside, it appears windowless but, touring the interior when closed for the public, small external courtyards (filled with statues) are soon pointed out. Opinion on the new addition to Oslo’s skyline has been divided, but curator Karin Hindsbo says visitor numbers been strong since opening at the start of June, and the population are glad to have a larger home for their vast hoards.

What?

The museum shows Norwegian and foreign art together, with dedicated rooms for artists including Edvard Munch, Harriet Backer and Johan Christian Dahl (two works of his «romantic nationalist» age toured Norway between the move, exhibited in a school, prison and restaurant, where customers could look out on the view depicted) . «Dahl was the founding father of Norwegian art,» says Hindsbo, though she admits the term may be outdated. She goes on to explain that fashion and objects of Norwegian everyday life («the ordinary made extraordinary») form part of interactive displays, while works at the turn of the century, and up to the 1930s, are shown together, with Munch’s self-portrait looking onto a Scream that is deliberately not given exact pride of place, to encourage acceptance of the rest of his œuvre.

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