User:WikiEmz/National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design

The National Museum of Art, Architecture, and Design is a Norwegian state owned museum, established in 2003 by the merging of the Architecture Museum, Art Industry Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art, National Gallery, and National Exhibitions. The National Museum collects, preserves, displays, and conveys the country’s most extensive collection of art, architecture and design. The collection has up to 400 000 works.

The museum holds regular exhibitions of works from their own collection and revolving collections of borrowed and owned works. The museums exhibiting areas in Oslo are Nasjonalgalleriet, Museet for Samtidskunst. It also exhibited at Nasjonalmuseet – Arkitektur og Kunsindustrimuseet until it closed on October 17th 2016. The exhibition programme includes travelling exhibitions from within and outside the country. In 2015 the museum had 602 546 visitors. The current director, Karin Hindsbro, started in 2017.

A new building for the National Museum is being constructed on Vestbanen in Oslo.

Collections of the National Museum

The National Gallery

The National Gallery was established in 1842 as The Norwegian States Central Museum for Visual Arts. Since 1882 it’s location has been on Universitetsgata in Oslo, in a building designed by Heinrich Ernst and Adolf Schirmer. The buildings exterior and interior was listed by Riksantikvaren in January 2012.

Art historian Jens Thiis was director at The National Gallery between 1908 to 1941. Thiis was internationally orientated and bought a series of central works in museums collection. The museum also received large presents from Olaf Schou (1909), Chr. Paus (1918), and Chr. Langaard (1922) during this period.

The museum has a vast collection of Norwegian national Romanticism paintings, as well as Edvard Munchs works. The main weight of the collection of older art consists of Norwegian paintings and sculptures from the 1800s.

Edvard Munchs Scream and other of his more renown works are among the highlights of the National Gallery’s collection. Other significant artists include J.C Dahl, Adolph Tidemand, Hans Gude, Harriet Backer, and Christian Krohg. The collection from the 20^th century shows the evolution within Norwegian visual arts with references and key works from Nordic and foreign art within paintings, scuplturephotos, video and other mediums.

In 1990 the museums collection from after 1945 was transferred to the newly established Museum of Contemporary Art.

The launch of a new permanent exhibition “Everyone is talking about the museum” in 2005 caused negative? reactions, as well as increasing the amount of visitors. The most heavily debated decision was to divide the museums ‘Munch Room’, and show Munchs works together with other contemporary painters. Another decision was to replace the chronological principle with a thematic one. The permanent exhibition was once again revisited in 2011, and in the current permanent exhibition ‘The Dance of Life: Collections from the ancients To 1950’ the Munch Room and the chronologic principle has been reinstated. The new permanent exhibition has been praised as ‘a short version of the worlds art history instead of a revisit of the museums own collection’.

Graphics and drawing collection

The museums extensive graph and drawing collection consists of approximately 50 000 Norwegian and foreign works, and spans from the end of the 1400s to current day. Central artists include Durer, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Goya, Picasso, Manet, Rafael, Rubens, Muncb, Tidemand, Dahl, Werenskiold, and Kittelsen. In addition to newer Norwegian graphics and drawn art is also well represented. The collection is available for visitors in the study hall.

The National Gallery’s doors are closing temporarily the 13^th of January 2019. The museum will serve as storage for the collections until its move to the new National Museum.

Museum for Contemporary Art

The Museum for Contemporary Art was established in 1988 and is located at Bankplassen 4 in Oslo. The collection consists of works from the former National Exhibition and National Gallery, including later purchases. The 1907 museum building, designed by Ingvar Hjorth, formerly housed the Norwegian Bank. The museum opened for the public in 1990 and became a part of the National Museum in 2003.

The museum has alternating exhibitions in the 2000 m² facilities. In and outside the museum installations by the artists Per Inge Bjørlo, Inner Space VS. the Goal (1990) and the gallery room sworn to Louise Bourgeois. The collection consists of over 5000 Norwegian and foreign works from the period of 1945 to now. Known Norwegian artists within the collection are Anna-Eva Bergman, Leonard Rickhard, Bjarne Melgaard, and Marianne Heske. Known international artists include Mario Merz, Cindy Sherman, Ilya Kabakov, Louise Bourgeois, and Isaac Julien. The collection is continually expanding with yearly purchases of art work.

Due to the relocation to the new National Museum, the museums last open day was the 3^rd September 2017. A large portion of the collection will be shown at the new National Museum. The contemporary art will for the first time ever be presented in a collection in partnership with design, crafts, and older art. This will be the biggest and most important exhibited collection in Norway.

In addition to exhibiting, the National Museum is relocating the collections from the old museum buildings. Several works will be evaluated, photographed, and conserved before they are packed away and relocated to storage, eventually to the new museum. This is extensive work and a great part of the preparations for the new National Museum opening in 2020.

National Museum – Architecture

The Architecture Museum was established by the Norwegian Architects National Association in 1975 and became a part of the National Museum 1^st July 2003. The museums exhibition location on Kongens Gate 4 was in use up until March 2005.

The National Museum opened in 2008 at a new location for architecture, called National Museum – Architecture at Bankplassen 3 in Oslo. The museum is located in three separate buildings that are built together. The main building – the oldest section – is Norges Banks Christianiaavdeling which was designed by Christian H. Grosch and was finished in 1830. Diagonally behind is Sverre Fehns addition from 2002 – the Ulltveit-Moe Pavillion – as well as a storage building from 1911, designed by Henry Bucher.

National Museum – Architecture shows alternating exhibits from the collection than consists of models, drawing, and photographs.

The National Museum has Norways most important architecture collection, featuring more than 300 000 items dated from the 1830s to current day. The collection highlights and documents different aspects of architectonic culture, and is mainly made up of private architect archives or fragments of archives. These span over a large variation of materials and mediums: architectonic drawings, photographs, models, conceptual studies, sketchbooks, correspondences and ephemera. The collections main point is the 1900s, and names within Norwegian architectural history such as Ove Bang, Blakstad of Munthe, Jan & Jon, Knut Knutsen, Arne Korsmo, Christian Norberg-Schulz, Magnus Poulsson, and Erling Viksjø are well represented. Pritzker Prize winner Sverre Fehns is a highlight of the collection.

Art Industry Museum

The Art Industry Museum is located at St. Olavs gate 1. The building was constructed in 1902 after Kristiania County in 1896 decided to construct a new building at the then Brandt løkke, on the corner of Ullevålsveien and St. Olavs gate. In 1897 they had an architecture competition, and within the 14 proposals the 26 year old architect Adolf Brendo Greve was declared the winner. Due to his young age he applied for help with the more experienced Ingvar Hjorth.

The museum itself was created by the initiative of professor Lorentz Dietrichson and antiquarian Nicolay Nicolaysen in 1876, and the museum was founded by the country that same year. That makes the museum among the first in Norway and one of the earliest art industry museums in Europe. This was most likely based on the newly founded state of Norway’s need to show themselves as an independent and individual nation.

The collection of design and crafts spans from ancient Greek vases and east-asian art objects to European fashion history. It includes fashion and textile, furniture, silver, glass, ceramic, design and crafts. The unique Baldishol tapestry from the 1100s, the royal costume collection, Nøstetangen glass, Norwegian silver and Herrebø earthenware are among the highlights of the collection.

Due to preparations for the relocation into the new National Museum, the Art Industry Museum closed 16 October 2016.

National Exhibitions

The National Gallery was established in 1953 as a government agency under the culture department, to send travelling exhibitions of Norwegian and Nordic art to other parts of the country. The agency sent out 142 exhibitions in the 34 years it existed. The National Exhibition built up their own collections, as well as borrowed works for their exhibits. The National Exhibition had ‘Art to the People’ as a motto.

When the Museum for Contemporary Art was established in 1988, the National Gallery became a part of the museum, from 1992 with the name ‘Riksutstillinger’.

The national exhibitions was a national art dissemination, whos task was to create interest and understanding for visual arts, crafts, photography, design, and architecture. A national competence centre for dissemination, exhibition technique and design. National Exhibitions had five departments: administration, programme, dissemination, information, and department for exhibition design.

From 1992 to 2005 it also had the function of organizing exhibition outside the usual – such as large exhibitions from other continents (Saana Africa, Art from South-Africa, Fråvær, Vietnam Express, etc.). From 2005 the National Exhibition was disbanded, its dissemination responsibility transferred to Landsdekkende Program, a part of the National Museum for Art, Architecture, and Design.

The new National Museum at Vestbanen

In the spring of 2008 the government decided that the new building for the National Museum would be located at Vestbanen. In November 2010 the German architecture company Kleihues + Schuwerk won the international artchitecture competition with the project Forum Artis.

A cohesive new building was one of the preconceptions for the establishment of the National Museum in 2003. Already ten years after Norway’s first public art museum was completed, the museums administration realized the National Gallery’s building was too small, along with other museum buildings in need of bigger more satisfactory premises. The same thing goes for the other exhibitions of the National Museum: Art Industry Museum, the Architecture Museum, and the Museum for Contemporary Art.

Architecture competitions of expansion at Tullinløkka were previously held in 1972 and 1995, but didn’t lead to anything.

Spring 2012 the pre-project was completed and delivered to the culture department. The government presented the project the 22^nd March 2013 with a price frame at approximately 5,3 billion Norwegian kroner. On the 6^th June 2013 the Stortinget decreed the new building to be within a cost frame of 5 327 billion kroners.

The new National Museum will have an exhibition area of 13 000 m² and will be the Nordics largest art museum.

The National Museum and Statbygg have together established the information centre Mellomstasjonen. Up until the museum opens you can get to know the building project and the plans for the new museum, as well as participate in breakfast meetings, artists discussions and many other things.

Conflicts

The National Museum has from its conception been plagued by conflicts, at administrative, artistic, and political levels. The first director of the museum was Swedish Sune Nordgrem (up until august 2006). Norgren stepped down as director after a longer period of professional critique and personal conflicts with the museum. Allis Helleland became the new director in August of 2007, under her leadership the conflicts with the museum continued, and she was exposed to critique from staff and outside environments. She resigned in August of 2008. The board constituted Ingar Pettersen as daily manager, at which point Christian Bjelland (1954), the museum’s board director since its conception, quit the same autumn, and was replaced by Svein Aaser.

The director from 2009 till 2017 was Audun Eckhoff, who was succeeded by Karin Hindsbo.

National Museums tasks and work

Purchases and presents

Collection work, purchases and presents for the collection is an important aspects of the museums community responsibilities. The museum builds and completes the collections mainly through current national organisations, and international organisations with a special meaning to the collection. There is a specific focus to gather main works and certain artist cabinets with a special meaning for a specific period, material group, or a separate area of the collection.

Conservation

One of the museums most important work is making sure the art works within the collection are kept in as good a state as possible. Conservators treat, document, and research the museums collection of painting, paper, textiles, artwork and design, installations and electronic mediums. An important part of the conservators work is to investigate and document the works state in connection with loans, exhibitions or purchases.

Research and development

Research and development is part of the museums core tasks. This activity springs out of and is partly integrated in the museums artistic activities. The research must be of a high level and live up to international standards. During 2010 the current research policies will be reevaluated and a long-term plan of action will be formed.

Published Research

An important form to disseminate research that’s done at the National Museum is publication. In addition to the yearbook Architecture in Norway publication and the journal Art and Culture, the museum yearly releases a catalogue connected to the exhibitions and collections. The museum staff also contribute in many different ways to other publications. Further information about each publication can be found in databases available via the National Museums library and in the overview of publications created by the museum.

Art and Culture

Norway’s only scientific journal within art history, Art and Culture, is published by the National Museum in collaboration with Universitetsforlaget. The purpose of Art and Culture is to publish peer-reviewed articles within Norwegian and international art history and current book reviews. Its main subjects are art, crafts, design, and architecture ranging from older to newer times.

National Museums research library

The museums research library includes approximately 165 000 books, exhibition catalogues, and encyclopedias within older and newer visual arts, crafts, design, architecture, and adjacent areas. The library has ca. 200 running journals, a video-/DVD collection, and a slideshow collection of ca. 28 000 slides. The library’s collection can be accessed at the library’s premises at Kristian Augusts gate 23.

Archive

The National Museums archive consists of extensive documentation and research materials. The collection includes archives from public and private parties, as well as a wide documentation of Norwegian artists and the museums own art collection. The archives are available at the library’s study hall.

The archive also includes an extensive collection of newspaper cuttings. The collection builds upon a systematic collection of clippings focusing on the post-war era till today. Parts of the collection stretches back so far at the 1800s.

Digital commitment

The museum performs digitalization work of the collections, through the mediums of DigitaltMuseum and Google Art Project, which can be accessed online. In the digital archive you can search through 35 000 works and 5000 artists, architects, and designers.

Organisation

The National Museum is run by the foundation Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, which was created by the culture and church department of the government on the 28^th of April 2003. The foundations upper organ is a board with seven members, whereof three, including the leader, are chosen by the state. The board hires a daily manager for a fixed term, and decides their work requirements and paycheck. The daily manager is in charge of the day to day work the foundation does in relation to guidelines given by the board.