“Art is as much about searching as it is about creating,” wrote Norwegian novelist Karl Ove Knausgaard in his book about painter Edvard Munch. “For entrances to reality, openings into the world.” For the uninitiated, that’s kind of how Oslo feels. It is an entryway into Scandinavia, into Norway and into a society and aesthetic that is familiar yet uniquely its own. The city’s unhurried pace and looming institutions present an atmosphere of stoic civilization, yet running through it all are undercurrents of eclectic folk myth and a mossy woodsiness intertwined with threads of Black Metal and a particular type of expressionistic Scandinavian madness.
It all spirals outward from the central hub that is City Hall Square, with its charmingly touristic pier and promenade flanked by the expansive structures of the Nobel Peace Center, the National Museum of Norway, City Hall itself and the old fortress just up the hill.
For the art-inclined traveler, the National Museum is the obvious place to start, but its collection is enormous, so spread your visit across two days if you want to see everything without losing steam by the moderns. Its grand attraction is Munch’s The Scream, which hangs amidst several more of his greatest pieces. To experience Munch’s singularly vivid work is reason in itself to visit Oslo, and the museum’s wider collection of art and artifacts is impressively enormous and of high caliber, rating among the great museums of Europe.
Nestled beside the museum is the Nobel Peace Center, which houses an overview of the history of the prize and its recipients with a shifting selection of special presentations and art installations. When I went, there was a temporary exhibit on imprisoned Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi and the Woman, Life, Freedom movement, as well as a Yoko Ono installation that invited visitors to hang written wishes from a little tree and build something new from shards of broken china.
While the aforementioned are profound artistic and cultural experiences, the Munch Museum is arguably the crown jewel of Oslo’s art offerings. Opened in late 2021, it contains the bulk of Munch’s wildly expressionist work curated according to various themes. While The Scream has perhaps been over-commercialized to the point where it’s difficult to see it for what it is, Munch produced a vast body of excellent work that is criminally underappreciated by most of the wider world. The design of the building itself has drawn mixed opinions, but I appreciate its tilted metal brutalism, particularly in the context of the scene around it: the beach, the slanted slab park of the opera house rooftop and the eclectic architecture of the surrounding neighborhood Bjørvika.
Best known for its expressive architecture, Bjørvika is like an enormous gallery of contemporary Scandinavian design concepts. Its towers tend to lean into the semi-socialized crossover between private and public space, with bold-angled apartment buildings opening into pedestrian courtyards dotted with the occasional restaurant or café.
Far across town (by Oslo standards, because you can get from one side to the other via tram in no time at all) amidst a neighborhood of carefully preserved 120-year-old houses is Frogner Park, home to an elaborate installation of 200 sculptures by Gustav Vigeland. Constructed around a monolith of interlocking human bodies, the individual sculptures portray nude forms in all manner of positions and engagement and are interspersed throughout a gorgeously landscaped garden. The overall effect is beautiful no matter the time of day, but it is outright stunning at sunset.
As for where to stay, Oslo is a prohibitively expensive city, so I recommend having access to a kitchen in order to cut costs by preparing meals at home. The hotel Att Kvadraturen is a great solution as it not only has in-room kitchens but also free on-site laundry (laundromats basically don’t exist in Oslo). Part of the Revier building, it is directly linked to a restaurant, bar, roof terrace and cinema. What’s more, the rooms and adjoining businesses are decorated with pieces by Norwegian artist Constance Tenvik.
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Eating out can be tremendously expensive in Oslo. For affordable bites on the go, check out the selection of food carts in front of the Nobel Center at City Hall Square. If you’re looking for a sit-down spread, walk a few blocks up to Masala Politics, where the prices are relatively reasonable and the food is outstanding.
Finally, no trip to Norway is complete without at least a taste of Black Metal, so hit up Vaterland Bar & Scene, where you can take in a show at the second-floor venue or just listen in from the grungy bar and pizza joint downstairs. It’s located in Grønland, a multicultural, muraled district where there is abundant food, booze and music. During the day, this is a quiet place to wander and take photos of the colorful street art. At night, it has a lively atmosphere that is perfect for bar hopping and sampling Norwegian beer.
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