On Thursday this week, it was announced in a very brief press release that “The Queen Sonja Art Stable” will open again. The opening date is set to be Saturday, July 4th with the press expected to get a preview sometime before this date. The restrictions caused by coronavirus are being lifted in Norway for galleries and museums, just before the arrival of summer. This allows the royal collections to been shown to the public again. This will be the first time visitors can enter the Art Stable in 2020.
It was on Monday 16 March it was announced that the new exhibition that should have been in the Queen Sonja’s Art Stable this spring had been postponed. The gallery had already been closed for month before that to prepare for the new exhibition “Castle + Munch” and was scheduled to be opened in March. This was the first time an exhibition from the royal collections has been postponed due to a pandemic.
The new exhibition will, when it opens, illustrate the relationship between the Royal Family and Edward Munch. The Norwegian Royal Family 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’s birth brought many visitors to Norway. Then, King Harald gave a speech in which 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 in the summer of 2017 to mark 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.
