On Monday morning, it was announced that the new exhibition that should have been in the Queen Sonja’s Art Stable this spring has been postponed. The gallery has been closed for the last month to prepare for the new exhibition “Castle + Munch” and was scheduled to be opened in March. However, because of the current coronavirus epidemic, the opening of the exhibition has now been postponed indefinitely.
This is the first time an exhibition from the royal collections has been postponed due to a pandemic.
Norway has been under lockdown since Thursday last week, and it will be for a minimum of 14 days. Restaurants, schools, universities and similar facilities are closed. The borders have been partly closed since Monday morning. As of Monday afternoon, three had died, 45 have been admitted to hospital and a total of 1,169 have the virus.
The new exhibition will, when it opens, illustrate the relationship between the Royal Family and Edward Munch. The Norwegian Royal Family has historically had a good relationship with the world-renowned artist, Edward Munch. In January, Her Majesty Queen Sonja attended the ceremony for the “Edward Munch Art Award”.
In 2013, the jubilee to celebrate 150 years since Edward Munch was born took place. Then, His Majesty the King held a speech where he said: “I must admit that in the Royal Family there are greater experts in arts than I am. Nevertheless, Munch has also fascinated me, as he has done with the Norwegian people, and the whole world.”
“Queen Sonja’s Art Stable” was opened the summer of 2017 on Queen Sonja’s 80th birthday. This gallery is located in the old stable buildings in the Palace Park that had never been accessible to the public before. From 2017, the building has been a new arena for art, culture and history in Oslo and is worth a visit by those in the city. It will contain various exhibitions.
