Enfilade

◊  ◊  ◊  ◊  ◊

Now on display in Oslo:

Design and Fashion: Norway 1814
Museum of Decorative Arts and Design, Oslo, 2 February — 31 August 2014

To celebrate the bicentennial of Norway’s constitution, the National Museum presents three historical exhibitions under the common title Norway 1814, in three different venues: the National Gallery, the Museum of Decorative Arts and Design, and the National Museum. These exhibitions will explore the art of the period in a new light. Visitors will be able to view many works that have rarely if ever been shown in public before. The exhibition is accompanied by a packed programme of events aimed at a broad audience, and a variety of educational activities for children and young people.

Furniture, glass, ceramics, fashion and architecture all express new ideas about democracy and national independence in the transitional period from the opulent splendour of the rococo to the simplicity of the Empire style, which built on the ideals of antiquity. Trade relations with foreign countries and the development of Norwegian industry were other important factors that influenced new ideas about design and fashion in these decades.

The exhibition at the Museum of Decorative Arts and Design presents, among other things, the magnificent residence of the Anker family known as the Paleet, which in 1814 became the royal residence of Christian Frederick and, later, of Karl Johan, Norway’s first king during its union with Sweden. The exhibition presents objects from the National Museum’s collection together with artefacts loaned from other national and international collections.