Oslo’s Munch Museum has begun putting original works by Norway’s most famous artist, Edvard Munch, on display at the country’s gateway airport, OSL Gardermoen. The first painting, Head to Head from 1905, was mounted in the airport’s new terminal just before the weekend.
The museum and Norway’s airports authority, Avinor, have launched a 10-year agreement to share some of the museum’s collection with the millions of travelers passing through the aiport. It’s the first time the museum is putting a Munch painting on display outside the museum.
“We very proud to be able to display the art of Norway’s greatest artists to travelers from all over the world,” said Øyvind Hasaas, director of OSL Gardermoen.
Edvard Munch willed all the paintings, lithographs and other works of art in his private ownership to the City of Oslo when he died in 1944. Museum director Stein Olav Henrichsen characterized the new program of lending art to the airport as a means of offering “an artistic pause in a busy travel day.” The painting will be on display for the next year, when another piece of Munch’s art will replace it. New art will be introduced every year.
The museum itself, meanwhile, is gearing up to open a new exhibition of Munch’s art that’s already been on tour to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and The Metropolitan in New York. It will feature 38 pieces of Munch’s art including several of what the museum calls his “unrivalled masterpieces.” The new exhibition will open May 10 and run through September 9.
newsinenglish.no staff
