The new Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway, will not be ready for the summer 2020 season.
Visitors coming to Oslo this summer to see one of Scandinavia’s most anticipated attractions have been left disappointed with the news of a delay of several months. The new Munch Museum under construction in Oslo’s emerging waterfront neighbourhood Bjørvika was supposed to open this spring. It will now not open until the fall, with a specific date yet to be announced.
Oslo municipality broke the news in a press release, blaming delays in the delivery of fire and security doors as well as the need for extra time to test the air conditioning in the new building. They state the new museum needs an advanced climate system to meet the requirements for the storage and exhibition of vulnerable art.
Despite the delays, Oslo city bosses are confident of their new fall timetable. Contingency plans are being made with other suppliers to mitigate any further problems.
Tracey Emin ‘looking at options’
One of the reasons the planned opening summer season was so anticipated was the inaugural exhibition that features works from British artist Tracey Emin alongside Munch.
Both artists focus on the human condition and Emin has long looked to Munch for inspiration. In 2009, she told The Independent that his painting Jealousy was an “incredibly open, self-effacing and defiant thing for a man in the early 20th century to do.”
Emin shrugged off the delays, telling the Art Newspaper that they were looking at options. One issue is that the exhibition is scheduled to move from Oslo to London’s Royal Academy of Arts in November. Whether the stay in Oslo will now be shortened or the move to London delayed is not yet clear.
A long-awaited museum
For decades, the substantial collection of work by one of Scandinavia’s most famous artists was crammed into a building east of downtown Oslo, away from the tourist trail. The new 13-floor venue in an upmarket area of Oslo’s waterfront will bring many of the 1,100 paintings and 6,800 paintings owned by the museum into the spotlight for the first time.
When it eventually opens, the museum will become one of the world’s biggest such venues dedicated to a single artist. It’s also already notable for its architecture. Designed by Spanish firm Estudio Herreros, the building is made of recyclable concrete and steel, with a facade of translucent, perforated aluminum.
The new Munch museum project is part of a major cultural overhaul underway in the Norwegian capital. The new Deichman library just a few minutes walk from the new Munch museum opens in March, with the vast new National Museum to come in 2021.
