EXIT! The Munch Museum 1963–2019

The history of the Munch Museum is full of drama, momentous cultural events and surprise twists. Did you know it is five years since Scream was last shown at the museum? And do you know what really happened when Scream and Madonna were stolen in 2004? Our last major exhibition at Tøyen summarises an important chapter of Norwegian museum history.

EXIT! combines autobiography with a farewell – a series of moments from the history of the Munch Museum at Tøyen in the period 1963–2019, beginning with Edvard Munch’s generous bequest to the city of Oslo in 1940. The exhibition is about the city’s vision for a world-class museum devoted to one man, competition between districts in the east and west of Oslo, the post-war years, political horse trading, faithless servants and brutal thefts. It is also about a municipal institution which for many decades struggled with poor finances, but which in 1991 clinched one of Norway’s largest cultural sponsorship agreements.

“It has been important for me to get contemporary artists to talk about different aspects of the museum, as a way to foster other perspectives. Elise Storsveen and Jon Gundersen have produced a site-specific installation that reflects on, among other things, the paintings Scream and Madonna. Birgitte Sigmundstad has made a new film that looks at the museum’s work and things that the public don’t usually get to see, while Per-Oskar Leu presents a new work that explores topics such as transience and perseverance,” says Elisabeth Byre, curator of the exhibition.

The exhibition turns the museum inside out – showing what is usually stored in magazines, archives, box files and shelves. It includes a selection of paintings and graphics from the opening exhibition in 1963, including Madonna and Vampire, together with objects, photographs and the original deed of bequest. Loans have been secured from the National Library, Oslo City Archives, the NRK, the National Archives, Henie Onstad Art Centre, Oslo Council’s Department of Culture, and various private archives. A number of external experts have been invited to contribute to the exhibition and to a special publication. Architectural historians Martin Braathen and Even Smith Wergeland examine the question of the site, the location debate and the museum building. Art and music historian Lars Mørch Finborud takes a closer look at the history of music and performance at the museum, while Munch experts Patricia Berman and Reinhold Heller talk about Munch on the international stage.

EXIT! takes you behind the scenes of an institution where experts and people of passionate commitment have worked hard to conserve Munch’s art and communicate it to the world. Stories and experiences we are taking with us to the new museum in Bjørvika, but which for now are being shared with the public.

“The exhibition will be a grand finale for the museum at Tøyen and a worthy farewell. We want to share with visitors the many exciting things that have happened at the Munch Museum in the fifty-six years since it first opened, and to take them on a journey from the point when Edvard Munch bequeathed his artworks to the city of Oslo, via the museum opening in 1963, through to the new museum of today,” says Stein Olav Henrichsen, director of the Munch Museum.

Open: 11 May – 8 September 2019

Curator: Elisabeth Byre

Exhibition architect: Vilhelm Christensen

For more information and photos:

Maren Lindeberg, Digital Communications Advisor at the Munch Museum.

E: maren.lindeberg@munchmuseet.no T: +47 45 80 26 48