Norwegian National Art Museum archives opened
Photo: The National Gallery collections, Oslo
Edvard Munch’s painting, “Scream.”
M. Michael Brady
Asker, Norway
In 2003, four national art museums in Oslo amalgamated into Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, arkitektur og design (“The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design”) to better serve the public. One of the principal incentives has been the digitalization of their archives of works by Norwegian artists, designers, and architects.
In all, some 33,000 works have been digitized, cataloged, and made available free online, first in Norwegian and now this December in English, link at: samling.nasjonalmuseet.no/en.
Save for some works subject to copyright, all image files may be downloaded and used free of charge. Of them, the National Gallery’s collection of Edvard Munch works are available free in high-definition files, link at: samling.nasjonalmuseet.no/en/folder/34.
The four museums are:
• The National Gallery, founded in 1837 and now holding the country’s largest public collection of art works
• The Museum of Decorative Arts and Design, one of the first of its kind in Europe, founded in 1876
• The Museum of Contemporary Art, opened in 1990 and now building its collections and featuring loaned works
• The National Museum – Architecture, opened in 2008
At this writing, the museums are located in their original buildings, awaiting the completion of the New National Museum now being built at the former Vestbanen (Oslo West Railway Station). Find them on the web at www.nasjonalmuseet.no/en.
This article originally appeared in the Jan. 8, 2016, issue of the Norwegian American Weekly. To subscribe, visit SUBSCRIBE or call us at (206) 784-4617.
