A Scandinavian Winter - chapter 9

Day 9 - a day in Oslo and a visit to Edvard Munch and friends

I lied! It doesn't just house Edvard Munch! It allows a few of his close friends and collectors who bought a shed load of his paintings! I suppose that is not quite accurate. There are effectively 3 collections: Munch himself (of which there are lots); an artist inspired by Munch, in this case Tracey Emin (interspersed with Munch paintings that inspired her); and, a collection inspired and advised by Munch, in this case the Rolf Stenersen collection, which includes a lot of Munch and other Norwegian artists inspired by him.

But who cares, it is a fabulous collection, in a fabulous brand new building. 12 stories of modern architecture on the Oslo waterfront, next to the Opera House. I managed to spend nearly 3 hours in there (including a cheese sandwich and a coffee admittedly), and I now have the answer to the question on everyone's lips. What is Edvard Munch's second most famous painting. Well it turns out it is ... The Scream! Apparently he made dozens of versions, two paintings (both in Oslo), two pastels and dozens of prints. I won't bore you with any more details - and it wasn't a trick question, I didn't know in advance, honest.

Possibly after The Scream (or actually the shriek, as its Norwegian title is Skrik), The Despair, which actually predates it is also famous and also offers an insight in how he thought - apparently for him art was inherently linked to being alone (obviously not my insight!).

They have 3 versions of The Scream at the Munch, and claim that due to the damage of light they can only show one of them at a time. So each is hidden behind automatic doors which open to reveal one of them randomly each hour. Sounds like a bit of gimmick to me - why not just dull the lights? Anyway, as a marketing exercise it works as the room with the 3 Screams in was packed on the turn of each hour. Rather disappointingly the random opening meant that for my third venture the print came back up again so I never got to see the painting. So I'll have to go back - see, very good marketing! Oh, yes, and a bit like the Mona Lisa, they aren't very big!

Anyway, thats probably enough art, so moving on. On the recommendation of my good friend John, I went from the Munch up the sloping roof of the Opera House for great views of Oslo harbour. It was rather fresh up there!

I wandered the streets for the remainder of the afternoon and ended up in a Christmas market with the usual stalls selling hot wine, Christmas socks and broken promises. And came across the open air ice rink, where the principal difference between this and the UK equivalent was the participants could skate!

And so to my last evening where I failed to get into my favourite Irish bar - because it was packed (should have booked a table!) - but finding, through serendipity again, another one, where (don't tell the Dubliner) the Guinness was actually better! But I restricted myself to one this time. Well, maybe two. Oh dear, the Everton v Liverpool game has just come on!

My final thoughts about Oslo: it is a lovely friendly city (from what I've seen); its a manageable size so you can walk round it; its remarkably traffic free (I don't think I've been in major capital city with so little traffic); and its bloody cold! But I really like Norway. I will be back, just possibly not in the winter.

Tomorrow I am heading home. We have reluctantly cancelled our Copenhagen part of the trip due to increased Covid restrictions and I have decided it is not really worth taking a(nother) ferry to Copenhagen to simply fly home from there. Copenhagen was the original whole point of this trip, to celebrate my brother and sister-in-law’s 60th birthdays. It’s now been cancelled twice but I had no appetite for “doing” Copenhagen on my own in the circumstances. We will do it another time. So tomorrow I head home on a rearranged flight and with credit banked with DFDS ferries for my unused ticket from Oslo to Copenhagen. I wonder how many times that will get me to Dieppe and back?

I'll draw this cobblers to a close tomorrow from the airport...

Just a few last pics:

My favourite Munch. It reminds me of Kirkenes or Hammerfest in the far north.

Tracey Emin's famous My Bed

Christmasy view back down Karl Johan Gate from the royal palace (which you can walk right around - not quite like Buck House then, or Windsor, or Sandringham, or Balmorral ...)

The inside of the gorgeous Opera House

The ferry I should be getting tomorrow to Copenhagen

Me and a tiger in central Oslo. Nope, I've no idea