Oslo, Norway

April 22, 2023

We sailed into Oslo past houses scattered throughout the forested hills.

After disembarking, we walked to the new Nasjonalmuseet, Norway's national art museum, to see Edvard Munch's famous painting, The Scream. We had missed it the last time we were in Oslo in 2019 because the museum was still being built and it was in storage.

Many people think the title refers to the man on the bridge, but the man is not screaming. Instead he is covering his ears to block out the scream of nature around him. Edvard Munch painted the scene to remember a time he was walking with friends during a vivid red sunset and stopped to rest and felt as if nature was screaming.

There were several other paintings by Munch featured in the museum including The Dance of Life, Ingrid Munch in Black (a portrait of the artist's sister), Spring, andThe Girls on the Bridge.

Munch also painted self portraits of himself at different times in his life.

There was a room of paintings done by artists who wanted to highlight the plight of people in poverty or celebrate the working men and women in society.

Another room featured landscapes and pastoral paintings, such as Christian Skredsvig's The Poet A.O. Vinje as a Shepherd Boy.

There was also a display of contemporary art including Ilya Kabakov's The Garbage Man (The Man Who Never Threw Anything Away) which depicted a room filled with labeled pieces of items like pieces of toothpicks or candy wrappers.

There was also a hanging column of stamps and an intriguing sculpture.

While there, a small group of people with dyed hair wandered through the rooms singing - perhaps a kind of performance art.

There were also rooms with religious art depicting scenes from the Bible such as Giovanni Francesco Romanelli's Moses Drawing Water from a Rock and the Adoration of the Magi by an unknown artist.

A temporary special exhibit featured Cubism with an emphasis on the works of Thorvald Hellesen, a Norwegian artist who was part of the cubist movement. Although his earlier works showed some similarities with that of Edvard Munch, as he grew as an artist he became more abstract.

On the way out, we passed by the Pile o’Sápmi by Máret Ánne Sara as a work of art protesting the Norwegian goverment's killing of reindeer belonging to the Sami reindeer herders of Finnmark.

After the museum, we walked around Oslo. It was a beautiful spring day in the high 60s or low 70s. Although it didn't feel that warm to us, many of the Norwegians found it quite comfortable and were dressed as if it was a hot summer day.

That evening as we awaited the sail away from Oslo, there was a beautiful sunset.