Art aficionados who have not visited a certain Norwegian chocolate factory will be able to see a series of paintings by Edvard Munch for the first time starting in May, when the Munch Museum in Oslo opens a show focused on the artist’s little-known public works from 1923.
An exhibition titled “Edvard Munch and the Chocolate Factory” will feature large-scale paintings temporarily relocated to the museum from a manufacturing center for Freia chocolate, for which Munch created the so-called Freia Frieze for the factory’s canteen in the later years of his career.
“At the time, Freia—Norway’s most iconic chocolate brand, both then and now—was seen as a progressive company which prioritised the wellbeing, health and welfare of its employees,” reads an exhibition description at the Munch Museum’s website.
“Two thirds of Freia’s staff were women, and the exhibition highlights women’s campaign for rights, as both employees and human beings.”
Edvard Munch, Girls watering flowers (The Freia Frieze IV), 1922.
Photo Halvor Bjørngård, Munchmuseet/©Edvard Munch
