A Visit to Oslo City Hall, Where Munch Room at Oslo City Hall

Home , Oslo City Hall

Even though I am an admirer of the work of Edvard If I took the murals in the main hall as an introduction Jurriaan Benschop Munch, I am not sure that I would choose to get to Norwegian art history, I would probably conclude married in a room that prominently displays that this is not a country of painters, just as visiting A COMMON CAUSE? his painting Life (1910). Relationships were not churches in Tuscany might lead you to the opposite ! A VISIT TO OSLO Munch’s forte, and the painting evokes isolation conclusion. Sørensen’s style of painting might be rather than communion. It is probably a question inspired by Italian fresco painting, but it remains CITY HALL of how literally you regard a painted scene when it static. Rolfsen’s work reminds me of socialist comes to deciding whether such a work o!fers the realism, with its didactic approach and heroic, Jurriaan Benschop is a German art writer, right prospect for a future together. The reason romanticized depictions of life – a touch of kitsch curator and regular contributor to Artforum for this re!lection is that couples are o!fered the is not far o!f either. The most fascinating room, International, as well as other art publications. opportunity to hold their wedding in the so-called in terms of painting, is one that I discover in the Øystein Wyller Odden, Power Line Hum (Composition In the following essay for osloBIENNALEN, he for the Organ in Oslo City Hall), preview, May 2019 writes about a visit to Oslo City Hall, where Munch room at Oslo City Hall. It is among the smaller East Gallery, where Per Krohg murals contrast Øystein Wyller Odden’s works for the biennial spaces in the huge building – the proportions are city life with nature. Here you actually sense the take place. pleasant, the ceiling is of pine, and the room looks artist’s imagination at work behind the !igures, out over the !jord. As a room in which to view a whereas many other murals mainly seem to serve Walking through all this regal splendour, I ask myself: painting, it is perfect. The work belongs to the the purpose of telling a story. Despite this !law, What does this have to do with contemporary artist’s “brighter, happier period,” according to I enjoyed spending several days at the city hall, life in Norway? What I see does not immediately the guide who is showing me the extensive city which puzzled me in its paradoxicality. Maybe the match the people I meet in Oslo. These personages hall art collection. When I point out that the two confusion was caused by the way the art program do not look like edgy workers or tough country men in the foreground do not look particularly was pursued into every corner of the building, women. They do not present themselves in heroic happy, she states, as if it goes without saying, leaving no detail untouched. The marble !loors poses. They are not very excited about labour “Oh yes; they are Norwegian.” have ornamental motifs; the curtains and furniture and progress. In meetings outside, I !ind most are all chosen and executed with an eye for detail. people to be down-to-earth, critical, and ironic, Oslo City Hall, built between 1931 and 1950, gives The combination of art, design, and architecture when it comes to evaluating the current condition foreign visitors like myself a number of clues about comprise an environment of high sensibility to of the country, or for that matter, the arts. I what it means to be Norwegian. The majority of form, balance, and colour. It creates a cosmos in wonder what artists today would produce if they the artists who in 1937 competed to contribute itself, distinct from what is happening outside. were asked to decorate the building. They would an artwork to the building seemed interested in And this a!fects the soul; it reaches beyond the probably bring more doubt and scepticism to the depicting society as a harmonious whole, moving level of storytelling. table. And they would hardly feel comfortable forward to a better future, in spite of diversity addressing national identity as a positive thing, and social di!ference. Their work re!lected on When considering the works of art here, it should since identitarian movements have hijacked the the country’s values and resources. Art was be noted that they function as the backdrop to term. The country is no longer young. apparently considered a good means of building other activities; the city hall is not an art museum. national awareness in a nation that was still The works are here to accompany people doing I had the chance to speak with a contemporary young. Gunnar Sørensen was chosen to execute things like getting married, attending the yearly artist who is working in the city hall as artist-in- the main mural for the spacious central hall. It Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, holding a banquet residence, hidden from the public eye. Lotte Konow depicts, in stacked horizontal layers, scenes of for foreign guests, or attending a city council Lund is spending one year in a studio high up in administration, work, education, and leisure. As in meeting. It is an environment for governance and one of the towers. She picks me up in the main hall Munch’s painting, it re!lects the cycle of life, but public a!fairs, the art o!fering counter-images to and leads me through two sets of delayed-egress in a di!ferent way. In Sørensen’s case, painting today’s concerns and perspectives. automatic doors (“after the 2011 Breivik attack, is basically storytelling through images, leading things have changed here”), to the elevator, up the viewer through a series of scenes depicting The most modern room, in terms of painting, use to the building’s work !loors. First, she wants trolls, poets, kings, and other national characters. of colour, and individualism, is the banquet hall. me to think about what is not depicted in the Pretty much the same goes for the other artists In addition to a large mural by Willi Midelfart, it murals I have just seen below, which is another involved in decorating the main galleries of city displays several royal portraits, including one of way of questioning the choices that were made hall. Alf Rolfsen’s large mural faces Sørensen’s, the current King Harald V. He appears “not too during the selection of artists back in the 1930’s. and shows people engaged in rural life, !ishing, kingly, not too friendly,” as my guide remarks, “just “What you cannot see, for instance, are the years boating, and exploring new territories, all coming as he rules.” It is painted by Håkon Gulvåg, who that Norway was under Danish or Swedish rule. together in the same epic story. earns my sympathy because, among his brushes, There are no traces of that history in the panels he must have hidden a sharp knife, which gives his downstairs. And also no work by female painters painting some psychological and aesthetic edge. or modern abstract artists,” she says.

POWER LINE HUM / POWER BALANCE 228 229 ØYSTEIN WYLLER ODDEN Even though I am an admirer of the work of Edvard If I took the murals in the main hall as an introduction Jurriaan Benschop Munch, I am not sure that I would choose to get to Norwegian art history, I would probably conclude married in a room that prominently displays that this is not a country of painters, just as visiting A COMMON CAUSE? his painting Life (1910). Relationships were not churches in Tuscany might lead you to the opposite ! A VISIT TO OSLO Munch’s forte, and the painting evokes isolation conclusion. Sørensen’s style of painting might be rather than communion. It is probably a question inspired by Italian fresco painting, but it remains CITY HALL of how literally you regard a painted scene when it static. Rolfsen’s work reminds me of socialist comes to deciding whether such a work o!fers the realism, with its didactic approach and heroic, Jurriaan Benschop is a German art writer, right prospect for a future together. The reason romanticized depictions of life – a touch of kitsch curator and regular contributor to Artforum for this re!lection is that couples are o!fered the is not far o!f either. The most fascinating room, International, as well as other art publications. opportunity to hold their wedding in the so-called in terms of painting, is one that I discover in the Øystein Wyller Odden, Power Line Hum (Composition In the following essay for osloBIENNALEN, he for the Organ in Oslo City Hall), preview, May 2019 writes about a visit to Oslo City Hall, where Munch room at Oslo City Hall. It is among the smaller East Gallery, where Per Krohg murals contrast Øystein Wyller Odden’s works for the biennial spaces in the huge building – the proportions are city life with nature. Here you actually sense the take place. pleasant, the ceiling is of pine, and the room looks artist’s imagination at work behind the !igures, out over the !jord. As a room in which to view a whereas many other murals mainly seem to serve Walking through all this regal splendour, I ask myself: painting, it is perfect. The work belongs to the the purpose of telling a story. Despite this !law, What does this have to do with contemporary artist’s “brighter, happier period,” according to I enjoyed spending several days at the city hall, life in Norway? What I see does not immediately the guide who is showing me the extensive city which puzzled me in its paradoxicality. Maybe the match the people I meet in Oslo. These personages hall art collection. When I point out that the two confusion was caused by the way the art program do not look like edgy workers or tough country men in the foreground do not look particularly was pursued into every corner of the building, women. They do not present themselves in heroic happy, she states, as if it goes without saying, leaving no detail untouched. The marble !loors poses. They are not very excited about labour “Oh yes; they are Norwegian.” have ornamental motifs; the curtains and furniture and progress. In meetings outside, I !ind most are all chosen and executed with an eye for detail. people to be down-to-earth, critical, and ironic, Oslo City Hall, built between 1931 and 1950, gives The combination of art, design, and architecture when it comes to evaluating the current condition foreign visitors like myself a number of clues about comprise an environment of high sensibility to of the country, or for that matter, the arts. I what it means to be Norwegian. The majority of form, balance, and colour. It creates a cosmos in wonder what artists today would produce if they the artists who in 1937 competed to contribute itself, distinct from what is happening outside. were asked to decorate the building. They would an artwork to the building seemed interested in And this a!fects the soul; it reaches beyond the probably bring more doubt and scepticism to the depicting society as a harmonious whole, moving level of storytelling. table. And they would hardly feel comfortable forward to a better future, in spite of diversity addressing national identity as a positive thing, and social di!ference. Their work re!lected on When considering the works of art here, it should since identitarian movements have hijacked the the country’s values and resources. Art was be noted that they function as the backdrop to term. The country is no longer young. apparently considered a good means of building other activities; the city hall is not an art museum. national awareness in a nation that was still The works are here to accompany people doing I had the chance to speak with a contemporary young. Gunnar Sørensen was chosen to execute things like getting married, attending the yearly artist who is working in the city hall as artist-in- the main mural for the spacious central hall. It Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, holding a banquet residence, hidden from the public eye. Lotte Konow depicts, in stacked horizontal layers, scenes of for foreign guests, or attending a city council Lund is spending one year in a studio high up in administration, work, education, and leisure. As in meeting. It is an environment for governance and one of the towers. She picks me up in the main hall Munch’s painting, it re!lects the cycle of life, but public a!fairs, the art o!fering counter-images to and leads me through two sets of delayed-egress in a di!ferent way. In Sørensen’s case, painting today’s concerns and perspectives. automatic doors (“after the 2011 Breivik attack, is basically storytelling through images, leading things have changed here”), to the elevator, up the viewer through a series of scenes depicting The most modern room, in terms of painting, use to the building’s work !loors. First, she wants trolls, poets, kings, and other national characters. of colour, and individualism, is the banquet hall. me to think about what is not depicted in the Pretty much the same goes for the other artists In addition to a large mural by Willi Midelfart, it murals I have just seen below, which is another involved in decorating the main galleries of city displays several royal portraits, including one of way of questioning the choices that were made hall. Alf Rolfsen’s large mural faces Sørensen’s, the current King Harald V. He appears “not too during the selection of artists back in the 1930’s. and shows people engaged in rural life, !ishing, kingly, not too friendly,” as my guide remarks, “just “What you cannot see, for instance, are the years boating, and exploring new territories, all coming as he rules.” It is painted by Håkon Gulvåg, who that Norway was under Danish or Swedish rule. together in the same epic story. earns my sympathy because, among his brushes, There are no traces of that history in the panels he must have hidden a sharp knife, which gives his downstairs. And also no work by female painters painting some psychological and aesthetic edge. or modern abstract artists,” she says.

POWER LINE HUM / POWER BALANCE 228 229 ØYSTEIN WYLLER ODDEN Here she touches on something I had been wondering Today, artists might allude to a range of issues, such about. With so many meters of !igurative, narrative as female, gay, or refugee identities, or ecological painting, what is up with abstract art in Norway? concerns. But the principle is the same, and it can Is it something that does not !it the local mindset? equally lead to politically correct storytelling, so Or was it just excluded here because the modern that the critical question is whether the works are movement did not prevail in the competition? Lund more than an illustration of a story. Against an mentions the work of Charlotte Wankel, an abstract instrumental approach to art, the work of Edvard artist who worked in the same period, and she Munch is a good antipole. His conception of art, adds: “Until Norway found oil, we were a poor driven by inner necessity, still has relevance and country by European standards. Between 1916 and followers today. Actually, it is the friction between 1950, travelling to Europe was for the privileged, art addressing a common cause and art as an educated sector of the population. There was a individual and immediate experience that makes common resentment towards abstract painting and a visit to city hall so interesting. modern art.” Lund has her own form of abstraction in painting, preparing a presentation of paper Munch showed some interest in creating works works covering the four walls of her studio, and for the city hall, but by then he was getting symbolizing the four seasons. Yet her strongest older, and eventually abandoned the idea. With impulse seems to be to make conversation about his completed Life cycle (!inished in 1916) in the what art could be nowadays, and to make the Oslo University Aula, he had already delivered audience question what they see and what they an ensemble for a public building in Oslo. The do not see. Her conviction seems to be that art large wall paintings there each show numbers needs to reach out to the audience. of individuals in relation to nature, to life, the passing of time, the appreciation of colour, and Oslo City Hall makes me think about another famous the sensibilities of the soul. While the Oslo City set of murals from the 1930s, in the American city Hall murals tell stories about the people at large, of Detroit. At the Detroit Institute of the Arts, or the country as a whole, in Munch’s cycle the Diego Rivera made a series of murals, in which focus is on the individual, evoking an existential industrial development was portrayed in a similar perspective. I would not assume that the self- symphonic style, where nothing can happen without questioning characters in his paintings, searching a grand !inale. It is a monument to industry – the for sovereignty, have disappeared from present- source of Detroit’s prosperity – and also to the day Oslo. workers who made it happen. The murals are still a cultural highlight, but not because they re!lect the situation today. The e!fects of globalization and the decline of the automobile industry have caused a massive exodus, leaving the city an industrial ruin. Rivera’s paintings have become historical in unwanted ways, representing long lost beliefs.

In Oslo, it does not seem that dramatic. These murals still evoke motifs that are relevant to the country (like the importance of wood, water, or !ish for the economy). Only the cheery impression evoked through the styles of painting may seem a little odd or out of place. Yet it would be wrong to pretend that we, nowadays, are beyond conceptions of art of the type seen at city hall. The conviction that artists should address political realities in order to be relevant is still a popular one.

POWER LINE HUM / POWER BALANCE 230 231 ØYSTEIN WYLLER ODDEN Here she touches on something I had been wondering Today, artists might allude to a range of issues, such about. With so many meters of !igurative, narrative as female, gay, or refugee identities, or ecological painting, what is up with abstract art in Norway? concerns. But the principle is the same, and it can Is it something that does not !it the local mindset? equally lead to politically correct storytelling, so Or was it just excluded here because the modern that the critical question is whether the works are movement did not prevail in the competition? Lund more than an illustration of a story. Against an mentions the work of Charlotte Wankel, an abstract instrumental approach to art, the work of Edvard artist who worked in the same period, and she Munch is a good antipole. His conception of art, adds: “Until Norway found oil, we were a poor driven by inner necessity, still has relevance and country by European standards. Between 1916 and followers today. Actually, it is the friction between 1950, travelling to Europe was for the privileged, art addressing a common cause and art as an educated sector of the population. There was a individual and immediate experience that makes common resentment towards abstract painting and a visit to city hall so interesting. modern art.” Lund has her own form of abstraction in painting, preparing a presentation of paper Munch showed some interest in creating works works covering the four walls of her studio, and for the city hall, but by then he was getting symbolizing the four seasons. Yet her strongest older, and eventually abandoned the idea. With impulse seems to be to make conversation about his completed Life cycle (!inished in 1916) in the what art could be nowadays, and to make the Oslo University Aula, he had already delivered audience question what they see and what they an ensemble for a public building in Oslo. The do not see. Her conviction seems to be that art large wall paintings there each show numbers needs to reach out to the audience. of individuals in relation to nature, to life, the passing of time, the appreciation of colour, and Oslo City Hall makes me think about another famous the sensibilities of the soul. While the Oslo City set of murals from the 1930s, in the American city Hall murals tell stories about the people at large, of Detroit. At the Detroit Institute of the Arts, or the country as a whole, in Munch’s cycle the Diego Rivera made a series of murals, in which focus is on the individual, evoking an existential industrial development was portrayed in a similar perspective. I would not assume that the self- symphonic style, where nothing can happen without questioning characters in his paintings, searching a grand !inale. It is a monument to industry – the for sovereignty, have disappeared from present- source of Detroit’s prosperity – and also to the day Oslo. workers who made it happen. The murals are still a cultural highlight, but not because they re!lect the situation today. The e!fects of globalization and the decline of the automobile industry have caused a massive exodus, leaving the city an industrial ruin. Rivera’s paintings have become historical in unwanted ways, representing long lost beliefs.

POWER LINE HUM / POWER BALANCE 230 231 ØYSTEIN WYLLER ODDEN