Munch Museum Shows Edvard Munch’s 12-Canvas Freia Frieze Outside Factory for First Time
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Jul 15
Munch Museum Shows Edvard Munch’s 12-Canvas Freia Frieze Outside Factory for First Time
2 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Jul 15
Summary
12 canvases from Edvard Munch’s Freia frieze are on display at Oslo’s Munch Museum until Oct. 11, the first time the work has been exhibited outside the Freia factory in Norway.
The loan became possible because Freia’s canteen is being renovated, and the exhibition uses the 1922-23 commission to examine workers’ rights, gender inequality and Freia’s exploitative cacao-sourcing history.
80,000 Norwegian kroner paid for the paintings in 1923 drew criticism at the time because female factory workers were on meager wages, underscoring tensions between Freia’s progressive image and labor conditions.
The show also reframes the frieze as part of Munch’s push for public commissions: it is one of only two public works he completed, and curators argue he saw such projects as a route to wider fame.