I had seen a version of Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” when it traveled to NY at the MoMA in December 2012. My niece from Korea was in town and she took this photo - I look so young!:
Today, I planned to see several versions and I’m also reminded that my Georgetown art history professor was the premiere expert on Munch. She did tell me Cezanne was her overall favorite, but her expertise and studies led her down the path of Munch and I had seen her books at the MoMA bookstore in 2012.
Breakfast at the hotel was crowded and colorful, but still challenged by the small coffee cups and needing refills. The weather is supposed to hold up today, but when I left the hotel, it was a little drizzly. I walked down to the #30 bus headed to Bygdøy which is nicknamed the “Museum Peninsula” with several national museums and where the wealthy used to summer.
The Viking Ship museum is going through a renovation and the Canadians from the cruise recommended The Polar Ship Fram Museum. Fram is the most famous ship in polar history, known for its amazing expeditions to the North and South Poles. It was captained by Roald Amundsen who was the first to reach the South Pole in 1911. We had seen his statue in Tromsø and heard about him in one of our cruise talks. The Fram below:
A model of how the ship would be docked:
Expedition maps of north and south poles:
Connected by a tunnel was a separate and new extension which houses the ship called, Gjøa. Also captained by Roald Amundsen n 1906, it was the first vessel to transit the Northwest Passage connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago:
There was an isolated area called “Ice Mummy” where you hit a button to enter and are enclosed. Then an automatic door opens and they recreated the weather conditions of what it’s like on the boat surrounded by fake people with diseased faces, a kraken on a wall, and spooky music. Then you leave through an ice tunnel with fake dead people in the walls. To say the least, I was alone, cold, and not happy about it.
After the museum, I boarded the adjacent Museum Ferry to the City Hall docks:
The City Hall is where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded and generally open to the public with murals, but was closed today:
In front of City Hall Plaza, is an “Untuned Bell” which can be rung through a foot pedal - folks (including me) kept pressing it while a couple was taking their wedding photos - it felt very auspicious:
To the side, was a monument honoring President Franklin Delano Roosevelt for helping the Royal family escape during the 1940s conflict, including the recently deceased King who was a young boy:
Across from City Hall is the Nobel Peace Center. Coincidentally, I visited the Nobel Prize Museum in Stockholm around this time last year and randomly, I stumbled upon the weekly Friday noon ceremony where a peace dove is released from the second floor. Like I said on our coastal adventures, it felt very much like a “cue the deer” situation from Chevy Chase’s movie, “Funny Farm”:
As part of the ceremony, Gen Z activists said a few words as they had been here for a week for a conference - it gave me hope that the kids are alright…
In the Nobel Field, all the laureates are presented in a garden of twinkling lights:
And the medal of the first Norwegian to win is on display:
I took a photo for and chatted with some former New Yorkers who now live in Maryland. We swapped notes and after the Nobel Peace Center, they planned to go to the Kon-Tiki Museum back on the Museum Peninsula. Although it sounds interesting that a Norwegian explorer sailed from Peru to Polynesia on a raft, one boat / sea vessel museum a day is enough for me.
Right next door and sharing a courtyard is the National Museum of Norway. In a brand new building which opened in 2022, it combines the prior museums of art, architecture, design, contemporary art, and national gallery.
On the first floor in the design area, I liked this “Blue Landscape” by Norwegian Marit Tinglett:
And I enjoyed many more items on display like Greek sculptures, dresses, porcelain, and etc. But it’s a bit overwhelming like the Met and there were several school groups. I went up to the roof terrace to rest on a wooden lounger and get a view of Oslo fjord:
Then I made my way to the Munch rooms on the second floor. The guard chuckled when I took this selfie with the earliest version of “The Scream”:
It was exciting to see in real life these other well-known pieces…
“Dance of Life”:
“Madonna” which has been stolen once:
“The Three Girls on a Bridge”:
“Moonlight”:
Apparently this was his breakthrough - “The Sick Child”:
I walked around the museum and saw Vigeland pieces, and other modern artists like Picasso, Degas, Léger, Monet, Van Gogh, and many Norwegian landscapes. Then I rested in the second floor café overlooking the courtyard and drinking a coke.
About a ten minute walk away, is the IBSEN Museum & Theater named after Henrik Ibsen. I hadn’t planned on going and we saw the famous playwright’s statue in Bergen, but since it was included in the Oslo Pass, I decided to check it out.
There’s a small exhibition and then on the hour, a guided tour of his restored apartment where he lived during his last decade and wrote his last two dramas. I learned his son grew up to be Prime Minister and married the daughter of Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, another Norwegian writer and a Nobel Laureate. Also, unfortunately due to lack of funds, the theater isn’t staging any plays, but being used for workshops and other incidental needs which made me sad.
A few pictures from the exhibition including first edition copies of his plays:
The closest transit stop is the National Theater with a statue of Ibsen on the left and Bjørnson on the right. Apparently, Ibsen had conflicting feelings about Bjørnson who helped Ibsen obtain a stipend, but didn’t attend the wedding of their children. As the guide put it, they had very different personalities with Bjørnson very boastful and Ibsen very reserved as seen by these statues:
Here I hopped on the tram, went east of the city center and up the hill to Ekebergparken Sculpture Park which is a wooded area with many sculptures. I didn’t get to see all of them as the area is quite large and on steep inclines, but managed to see several notable ones during my walkabout…
Salvador Dalí’s “Venus de Milo aux Tiroirs”:
Fernando Botero’s “Reclining Woman” - I saw many of his pieces in Colombia and there are two prominently in Columbus Circle near my office:
Tony Oursler’s “Klang” which makes sounds and speaks - it scared me as I could hear voices way before I saw it and in a near empty forest path, it felt like the beginnings of a horror movie:
This came up on my Instagram, but I stumbled upon it and knew what it was. Officially called “Fideicommissum” by Ann-Sofi Sidén, it actually pees intermittently:
I circled looking for Louis Bourgeois’ “The Couple” - loved it being nestled in the trees even though I was sweating by the time I found it:
And I reenacted with my work phone, Thomas Price’s “Reaching Out” while waiting for the tram to arrive:
I saw Rodins, Maillols, Renoirs (didn’t know he sculpted), a Vigeland, and others. I missed out on a Jenny Holzer who I first saw at the Guggenheim in Bilbao and again in Maryland’s Glenstone, a Damien Hirst, and James Turrell’s “Skyspace” which is only by weekly guided tour.
Not only do I love walking around a sculpture park, but this is where Munch was inspired to paint “The Scream” when walking with some friends. The point itself is accessed by a steep trail as the park provides panoramic views of Oslo:
I then took the tram downhill to Bjørvika where the Oslo Opera House and the Munch Museum are located.
The Opera House ia the home of both the National Opera and Ballet and the largest cultural institution built since Trondheim’s Nidaros Cathedral in the 1300s. Constructed from Carrara marble, you can actually walk on the angled roofs:
The first floor shows all the wigs and costumes being prepared through the windows, so I did my best opera singer impersonation:
You can see dock saunas and many seagulls behind me:
Here you can also see the Museum Peninsula and a floating glass sculpture called “She Lies” by Monica Bonvicini. It’s apparently inspired by a Caspar David Friedrich painting called “The Sea of Ice” which depicts a boat in the arctic landscape. I don’t recall seeing the painting at the Met exhibition last year, but my friend really loves his work. My day was coming full circle…
For dinner, I ended up at Villa Paradiso right next to the Munch Museum. I enjoyed an Aperol spritz and capricciosa pizza, but forgot to take a photo.
Inside, there are several versions of “The Scream”, and apparently eight of these are in the MUNCH collection and rotate on display for preservation purposes. I thought they would have one on view from the rotation, but there’s literally a special room where only one is shown at a time for 30 minutes with 2 colored versions and one black and white print. The black and white print alternates as it’s less sensitive to light exposure. Folks clamor to capture the first glimpses of the reveal:
I kept coming back at either the start or end of the half hour to see all three versions in the pod and took the obligatory selfies:
Elsewhere in the museum were several versions of paintings that I saw at the National Museum and many more. He was quite prolific and there was a section where it explains how he made so many variations of the same scene, model, or inspiration with various titles. It was fun to see such a variety and outside of “The Scream”. Here’s “Anxiety”:
Some of his monumental pieces that were commissioned for the University of Oslo, called “The Researchers”, “The Human Mountain”, and “The Sun”:
He was also commissioned to paint friezes for the canteen walls of a chocolate factory mainly with women workers:
There were other interactive areas and a room showing woodcuts for his prints and I enjoyed the Oslo sunset:
After the museum closed at 9 pm, I took the tram and headed back to my hotel. I decided to pop into the hotel bar for one last local Norwegian beer and the first full song by the DJ was a remixed version of Jolene. Well done, Norway, well done.
