Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art

The Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art is a privately owned contemporary art gallery in Oslo in Norway. It was founded and opened to the public in 1993. 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 Jeff Koons, Richard Prince, Cindy Sherman, Matthew Barney, Tom Sachs, Doug Aitken, Olafur Eliasson, and Cai Guo-Qiang. The museum gives 6-7 temporary exhibitions each year. Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art collaborates with international institutions and produces exhibitions that travel worldwide. In 2012 the museum moved to two new buildings designed by Renzo Piano in Tjuvholmen.
The museum opened in 1993, and was funded by two philanthropic foundations established by descendants of the Fearnley shipping family, the Thomas Fearnley Foundation and the Heddy and Nils Astrup Foundation. Until 1990, no museums in Norway were solely dedicated to contemporary art. The Astrup Fearnley Museet, alongside the National Museum of Contemporary Art, played a crucial role in introducing the Norwegian public to contemporary art.
The two foundations merged in 1995 to become the Thomas Fearnley, Heddy and Nils Astrup Foundation. The Thomas Fearnley Foundation was established by shipping magnate Thomas Fearnley (1880–1961) in 1939; he was the son of shipping magnate Thomas Fearnley (1841–1927) and grandson of romantic painter Thomas Fearnley. The Heddy and Nils Astrup Foundation was named for Nils Ebbessøn Astrup, who was a maternal grandson of Thomas Fearnley (1841–1927).
The museum created a stir in the international art world in 2002 when it purchased the American artist Jeff Koons's monumental sculpture in gilt porcelain of the pop star Michael Jackson with Bubbles, his favourite chimpanzee, for US$5.1 million.
The permanent collection consists of works of Norwegian and International Contemporary Art. 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. 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 1980s and international contemporary art. The collection includes works by artists such as;
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 2500m².
The old museum building had a main entrance on Revierstredet, 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 covered two floors. The height of the galleries varies from 3,5 to 10,5 meters. In the design of the gallery spaces, the 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 two floors. The stone floor is made of Cascais Azul, a Portuguese sandstone.
Aside from the sculpture garden, the exhibition spaces are devoid of daylight, yet they have general artificial lighting that can be specifically adapted to any requirement.
The administration department is situated on the mezzanine; with a predominance of steel elements, it is an architectural volume in its own right.
Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art is now situated on Tjuvholmen in the centre of Oslo. The new museum was designed by the architect Renzo Piano and opened on 29 September 2012,. It consists of two buildings housing the museum's permanent collection as well as temporary exhibitions.
Large, modern exhibition spaces give the museum the possibility to continue its ambitious program of temporary exhibitions. Altogether, Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art has at its disposition about 4200 m². The museum is situated in the Tjuvholmen skulpturpark, also designed by Renzo Piano.
In 2012, the decision by the private Astrup Fearnley Museum to accept sponsorship from the Norwegian arm of the Swedish-based oil company Lundin Petroleum caused public criticism.
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