Vigeland Park….last visited in 1972!

Oslo is a city we last visited in 1972 in a Citroen 2CV on our way to Lapland and the Arctic Circle. The expectation was that we would see another Oslo! But the Vigeland Sculpture Park was much as we remembered. 

We do have black and white photos taken with a camera and now the photos are in colour and are instantaneous to view so we can edit and trash. Such is life as we have known and now know it. 

The sculpture is soaring  in its impact in a park setting and surrounded  by smaller sculptures reflecting human growth and familiarity.

 

Astrup Fearnley Museum…Oslo



Waterfront art.  Astrup Fearnley Museet was founded in 1993 and is one of Scandinavia’s most notable museums for contemporary art. 

Set overlooking the water the collection is a reflection on the times and the changing nature of society and the response of artists to issues we face. Some familiar and not so familiar artists are on display in a space that promotes rambling and unexpected twists and turns. 

The museum holds the extensive Astrup Fearnley Collection, and presents changing exhibitions that draw on the collection as well as debut new commissions by artists from all over the world.

 

On the water’s edge….National Museum

The journey has been a long and controversial one for the design and location of a National Museum. 

Following several years of inaction, doubt and inaction in 2008 the government decided on a location and in 2010 the German architectural firm Kleihiews-Schubert won an international competition and in 2022 the National Museum opened but was ‘derided by critics as resembling a ‘prison’. 

 However its location is no prison site as it sits on the waters edge and provides a stunning if not overbearing look in amongst the old and the new buildings along a very active waterfront. It is of a ‘durable’ construction according to a very talkative guard who was at pains to describe its features to us.

We start at the top and work methodically down as one does stopping in at rooms in a structured way without being diverted by the sight of ‘that’ painting. Paintings have a tendency to capture not only one’s interest but imagination. 

Women provide the bookends….National Museum Oslo

The National Museum has women at its bookends, an architect Wenche Selmer and an artist Astra Nørregaard. 

On the top level is architect, and on the ground floor artist What is also striking is the number of women artists who often fill entire rooms when in other museums around the western world it is ‘men only’.  

It is  evident that women were artists responsive to the changing artistic movements that reflected the social, political and environmental interests of the times and responded to brush stroke, colour, light and form. The descriptive notes presented the women artists as supportive of other women artists and who often worked as artists in art academies and places of learning.   

 

Gronland….up close!



What makes Oslo tick? 

After Norwegian, English is widely recognised as the second most common and widely understood language in Oslo. More than 80% of Norwegians are fluent in English, and it is frequently used in business, media, and everyday public life. And it is used across the city of Olso and especially in the diverse and rich multicultural neighbourhoods as a bridge across cultures, ethnicity and religions. 

It is not a bridge too far in Gronwald.

The street has its Greek, Indian, Thai, Vietnamese, Italian, but no Expresso House or Starbucks. And definitely no MacDonalds. It also has fresh fruit and vegetables on the street and inside speciality supermarkets for the Asian, Middle Eastern communities. You want cereal you had better try a Norwegian supermarket across the way!

 

The Screaming obvious!

 

You can’t visit Oslo and not seek out ‘The Scream’ though given there are 4 versions of Munch’s ‘The Scream’ so it is not hard to find.  And so we did find one at the National Museum.  The most common questions asked about Edvard Munch's ‘The Scream’ focus on its ambiguity. These fall into a few core categories:  Is the figure screaming? What inspired the background figures? Is there a deeper meaning? 

But the question on my lips was ‘Who stole The Scream?’

 So I asked the guard who was alert to protecting ‘The Scream’ and asked ‘Who stole The Scream?’  He said that in 1994 the Winter Olympics were held in Lillehammer and police were called away from Oslo. The city was thus police free so the art thieves struck. They used a ladder to gain entry to the Museum and stole The Scream!  In 3 weeks the painting was returned along with a note explaining  that it was easy to steal

Oslo…Gronland

  ……..Oslo as we did not know it! A Middle Eastern, Asian and African neighbourhood with its restaurants, cafes, fruit and vegetable markets, supermarkets, street life and diversity of languages.