The Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art Welcomes Our Editor

Written by Gregory Lloyd Friday, 16 March 2012 23:14

The Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art is a private art museum founded in October 9, 1993. Located in Oslo, Norway the museum is based on an exquisite collection of international contemporary art. The collections main focus is the American appropriation artists from the 1980s, but it is currently developing towards the international contemporary art scene, with artists like Jeff Koons, Richard Prince, Cindy Sherman, Matthew Barney, Tom Sachs, Doug Aitken, Olafur Eliasson and Cai Guo-Qiang. At the museum one can find a Jeff Koons’ gigantic piece of kitsch in fragile, gilt porcelain – a sculpture portraying the pop star Michael Jackson with his favorite chimpanzee, Bubbles. The museum gives 6-7 temporary exhibitions each year. Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art is very much an international museum of high quality. The museum collaborates with international institutions, and produces exhibitions that travels worldwide. The museum is also very much preoccupied with relations between the museum and the public, and have recently been able to offer free admission. The museum is working towards new communication structures with information via mobile telephone and highly trained museum guides. The museum collection was originally based on a private collection that goes back thirty years, and has significantly developed with the many changes in modern/contemporary art. There has been an interest in German Abstract Expressionism, English modern painting, and the “Young British Artists” to mention a few areas. Presently the collection is orientated towards the young American art scene. It also encompasses works pertaining to the steadily increasing global art community. The main areas of curatorial expertise in the museum are art from the 1960s to the present, including American and European pop-art, post-modern appropriation art of the 1980’s and international contemporary art. Much needed additional space will be provided by 2012 when the museum moves into two new buildings designed by Renzo Piano that will be located in a sculpture park also designed by Piano. The Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art should be on every art lover’s radar screen. Website: _ www.afmuseet.no/

The Astrup Fearnley Collection is vast and expanding. For the next two years, its works will go on a temporary rotating display within the museum. The concept of rotation enables them to work with the collection as a whole but not at the same time. It presents a way to create constellations of works ‘on the move’, and facilitates surprising and unique assemblages of art across a large, diverse conceptual and thematic spectrum. Famous artists like Allora & Calzadilla, Frank Benson, Cao Fei, Gilbert & George, Douglas Gordon, Shilpa Gupta, Guyton Walker, Damien Hirst, Anselm Kiefer, Ann Lislegaard, Liu Wei, Bjarne Melgaard, and Yang Fudong can be found in their permanent collection. The museum has confirmed its position as an important institution for the presentation of contemporary art, both through mounting prestigious exhibitions, but also through the large holdings of Norwegian and international contemporary art, which include the greatest names in the international arena of art. The Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art is an independent part of the Astrup Fearnley building complex, which covers approximately one half of a city block. Designed by LPO architects and designers, the museum opened in the autumn of 1993 and encloses an area of about 4500 sqm.The main entrance is marked with monumentally large steel doors; when the doors are open, one can see from a great distance that the museum is open. The exhibition spaces cover two floors. The height of the galleries varies from 3,5 to 10,5 meters. In the design of the gallery spaces, emphasis is upon the rooms expressing humility in relation to the artworks; simultaneously they provide the works with a beautiful and functional frame. Emphasis is also laid upon the entryway and exhibition spaces being airy and pleasant to move about in. The floor-design provides great flexibility for temporary constructions and installations. The choice of materials expresses quality but with limited means—here the artworks are the main focus. The concrete wall, like a circular movement in the museum, establishes a powerful but nevertheless subdued backdrop; the stairway to the main gallery, formed in steel with steps of smoked oak, shows an unambiguous connection between the floors that is greatly admired by visitors.