Since we have more time than planned, we make our afternoon all about Munch! There is a 7 floor museum dedicated to all things Munch – a combination of all the smaller museums that were once strewn about the city – right on the harbor which becomes our afternoon destination.  We purchase tickets online for a 3:30 entry – figuring we’d better make sure we have entry and take an easy walk around the harbor and into the museum.

The building itself is pretty amazing on its own – while it is billed as 7 stories – the stories are massively tall and there is also a rooftop restaurant and bar…so looking at it from across the water, it definitely looks larger than just 7 stories.

Once our bags and coats are stowed, we enter into the first floor and follow the exhibits all the way up.  They have really done a lovely job of putting together all the different museums and aspects and periods of Munch’s life here in one building.  We ride the long, steep escalators up between floors, leisurely meandering through each of period of Munch’s life as depicted in the exhibitions.

One display is even a recreation of his home in Ekely, only a few kilometers from the museum’s location today.  An informational video tells us that when Munch was alive, he could actually see the town of Oslo from his home and the harbor where the museum is located.  Today, we can only see the trees that have matured and grown to block the view of his Ekely estate. The actual exhibit is the layout of the house in a 3-dimensional sort of way, where you walk through each room and a sensor begins a video or audio presentation/information.  Very creative.

Of course, rightly or wrongly, the centerpiece is the Scream, showcased in a 4-sided vestibule type display.  What I never realized is that there are many versions of the famous painting, including several drawings and six lithographs.  (I guess I should have figured that, in creating the painting Munch would do different sketches and versions before the final, but, still!) The museum displays 3 versions of the work:  the painting, a drawing and one print on 3 separate walls, for one hour at a time.  In this way, they can showcase the art while limited the amount of light each piece receives, thus preserving each work’s life and the ability to continue to display them for years to come.

Our first time through we view the actual painting – which in real life doesn’t seem quite as dramatic as all its reproductions we’ve seen over the years!  Isn’t that always the way?  But it is still pretty amazing to be standing right in front of something so important and so well known and famous. 

Since we don’t know when the switch occurs, we decide to finish up our visit then come back on the way out to see what will be displayed next.  Which brought us to his monstrous paintings, one of which takes up an entire massive wall along with others of equal stature in this humongously large room with towering ceiling.  The room is so large, they have a viewing window upstairs on the next floor!

And, upstairs in that viewing area room there are also wood carving sketches.  These are wood carving templates from his work which are oddly fascinating – for the technique as well as the subjects.   Less graphic examples are actually carved into tables where you can take a sheet of paper and rub wax crayons over the surface to reproduce the carving in relief.  Which we do – and now have a lovely little handmade souvenir to take home.

Then it is up to the rooftop bar which is sadly not open.  We were hoping for an afternoon aperitif overlooking the city, but have to settle with just overlooking the city.  All in all, not too much of a hardship.  The views from up here are spectacular.  The harborside with all its development, past the harbor out to the sprawling suburbs and mountains behind, and down in the harbor itself, that cool glass ship reproduction we saw from sea level on the way over.

Beautiful.

Then it is back down to The Scream, where the lithograph is on display.  Now this is more what we’re used to seeing.  It’s the black and white versions that abound everywhere – and that is why the color version seemed so odd – at least to me. Aha!  That’s now all figured out.  (As a matter of fact there is a b/w scream platter in the apartment, which reinforces the whole b/w vs. color thing!  Oh, and it is totally cool and I really want to steal it, but I’ll be good…I promise….maybe…..)

After The Scream, it is time to head home, and we do, walking along the harbor once again, taking more pictures of the glass boat in the water.  The light is perfect for picture taking – and we decide it is a sinking boat, symbolic of….what?  We don’t know. But that is our opinion.

Then it is back to the apartment to hang out on the patio/balcony, have our glass of wine and beer then eat leftover grocery store snacks for dinner and rest up for tomorrow’s new adventure – a ferry ride to the Fram museum!