The Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art (Astrup Fearnley Museet) is a privately-owned contemporary art gallery in Oslo in Norway. It was founded and opened to the public in 1993. In 2012 the museum moved to two new buildings designed by Renzo Piano on Tjuvholmen (see previous post about the area).
A short piece by John Cage to accompany our post:
The private museum is funded by two philanthropic foundations established by descendants of the Fearnley shipping family, the Thomas Fearnley Foundation and the Heddy and Nils Astrup Foundation.
The collection’s main focus is the American Appropriation artists from the 1980s, but it is currently developing towards the international contemporary art scene, with artists like Damien Hirst (National History series), Anselm Kiefer, Jeff Koons, Richard Prince, Cindy Sherman, Matthew Barney, Tom Sachs, Doug Aitken, Olafur Eliasson and Cai Guo-Qiang. They are radical 10+ years ago but are all superstars now. We will show a few of the pieces on display below.
There is a catalog of its collection online – click here and here. Here is an article about the museum and the owner-collector.
Viewer’s discretion advice.
Mother and Child (Divided) 1993 – Damien Hirst
Formaldehyde tanks preserving the mounted corpse of a cow and a calf.
The corpses were cut longitudinally and neatly into two halves with the internal organs exposed.
It was not as shocking as described because the internal organs looked the same as those sold in supermarket.
It was just a bit perturbing to see them in its natural position in functional relationship with the other parts.
He produced another set with a different animal without organs mounted in a less natural manner.
God alone knows 2005 – Damien Hirst
Can’t help but associate this piece with biblical crucifixes and the sacrificial lamb.
A poem is engraved onto the marble pedestal which raised the animal carcasses above eye level. The text reads:
Here is the night
It is a reflection of the hopeful terror of the day
Be not afraid
Only one piece from the most famous artists were on display. Maybe they only have one piece from each, but they are very representative and matched the tone of pieces by other artists in the collection.
Gilbert & George
About their collection, on their web site, they stated that “This exceptional collection does not aspire to present an encyclopaedic overview of international contemporary art. …”
” … Instead, it is an agglomeration of works by artists who occupy key positions in the field, either because they have created visual languages, objects and images of great originality and quality, or because they have reinvented significant aspects of cultural production.”
Giant books made of lead – Anselm Kiefer
Triptych Inspired by the Oresteia of Aeschylus (1981) – Francis Bacon
Update: This piece by Francis Bacon had been auctioned in 2020 by Sotheby’s and was valued at between 60-80 million dollars.
The museum is not big but every piece in it is a gem. They also put on temporary exhibitions as well as showcases of Danish artists – so it is well worth coming back.
It is one of the elite institutions like the Boros Collection in Berlin, the Museum Brandhorst in Munich, the Fondazione Prada in Italy, the Leeum Samsung Museum in Seoul, and the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, that exhibit contemporary art masterpieces.