In The Collection, you can experience around 6,500 works from Norway's largest collection of art, architecture, and design – from ancient times to the present day. Norwegian art, design, and architecture are presented in an international context.
The presentation is chronological, showcasing key features of Norwegian art history alongside central foreign works from the collection. This creates an interaction between the different parts of the collection, both within historical periods and across history.
From imperial porcelain to contemporary Norwegian fashion
On the first floor, you can explore design and crafts from ancient times to the present day. Painting, sculpture, and architecture also form a central part of the presentation. Here, you can experience Roman emperor busts and the nearly thousand-year-old Baldishol tapestry. Here, the political and social power that design and art have had throughout the ages is thematized.
You will also see large parts of Queen Maud's and Queen Sonja's royal costume collections. In the Norwegian contemporary fashion gallery, you will find established designers like Per Spook, alongside younger designers who have made their mark in recent years.
Grand landscape paintings, politics, and contemporary art
On the second floor, you will find still lifes from the 1600s, the earliest depictions of Norwegian landscapes, and Edvard Munch's many representations of the human emotional experience, including The Scream. Hannah Ryggen's textile works and John Savio's woodcuts are given significant space, and in The fairy tale room, you can experience Theodor Kittelsen's mystical universe.
Here, you will also see some of the museum's most important works in national and international contemporary art. This section of the collection includes three installations: Per Inge Bjørlo's Inner Room V, Ilya Kabakov's The Garbage Man, and the collaborative piece Gaze by visual artist Irma Salo Jæger, composer Sigurd Berge, and poet Jan Erik Vold. A special gallery is dedicated to the architect Sverre Fehn.