The Art Museums in Bergen – Norway

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The Art Museums in Bergen – Norway

Bergen has several strong art collections, mostly centered on the south side of Lille Lungegårdsvann, and octagonal lake near Grieg Hall, and a focal point for the Bergen summer festivals. Learn more about the art museums in Bergen – Norway.

Kode Bergen is in charge of four museums and three composers’ homes. They boast large collections of fine arts in all separate buildings.

Lysverket is the only Kode building not originally built for museum purposes. The large building from 1938 was previously the administration building for the municipal power company Bergen Lysverker, from which the name arrived.

At Lysverket you can explore temporary exhibitions as well as permanent works from the collection. Unfortunately, the museum is currently being redecorated and there are no exhibitions on display.

The Art Museums in Bergen – Norway
Stenersen Gallery

Related: Beautiful Bergen – Its Art and Artists

Under normal circumstances the museum presents Norwegian and international art from the 15th century to the present.

The collection assembled by businessman Rasmus Meyer has given its name to the Rasmus Meyer Art Museum. Here, you will find the third largest Edvard Munch collection in the world. The museum focuses on Norwegian masterpieces from the 18th to the early 2th century.

Across two floors, you wander through the golden age of Norwegian art history, from 1880 to 1905 and onwards to 1920. The museum displays works by artists like J.C. Dahl, Hans Gude, Harriet Backer, Christian Krohg, Kitty Kielland, Nikolai Astrup and Erik Werenskiold, as well as Norwegian Matisse students Henrik Sørensen and Jean Heiberg.

Related: The Silver Treasure in Bergen – Norway

The Art Museums in Bergen – Norway
Rasmus Meyer Art Museum.

In the elegant Blumentahl room you can experience historic Bergen interiors with its wall and ceiling paintings from around 1760 covering the entire room.

In Rasmus Meyer you find permanent exhibitions. Very few changes are made to the selection on display. Still, you will easily be tempted to return to the museum several times – perhaps to discover some new favorites.

Stenersen Gallery stages interesting contemporary art exhibitions.

Now on display: It Might Be Beautiful. The art collector Rolf Stenersen.

There are two flexible exhibition rooms on the first floor, and on the ground floor you find the reception and Kode’s bookshop.

For those who wants to keep up with what’s happening in the Bergen art scene, Stenersen is the museum you want to visit most often.

There are between six and eight new exhibitions every year in this museum, presenting international contemporary art, exhibitions of architecture, handicraft or graphic art and exhibitions of works from own collections.

Related: Bergen and the World: 1400 – 1900

The Art Museums in Bergen – Norway
Permanenten, Bergen

At Permanenten there are temporary exhibitions across three floors of both contemporary art and works from the museum’s own collection. However, no exhibitions is currently on display.

You might know Permanenten as Vestlandske Kunstindustrimuseum. Traditionally, this is the building housing the collection of fine craft and design, Norwegian silver and the Chinese art collection.

At the top floor you find Festsalen, suitable for hosting various larger events and festive occasions, in addition to the library and meeting rooms.

The museum is currently being renovated and has a limited number of exhibitions on display in 2022-23. Large parts of the collection previously on display in Permanenten is not available at this time.

The Art Museums in Bergen – Norway
Kunsthall Bergen.

In between sits the Bergen Contemporary Art Center (Kunsthall) in a spectacular Modernist building by Ole Landmark, with a buzzing café, bar and nightclub.

The Art Museums in Bergen – Norway, compiled by Tor Kjolberg
Feature image (on top): City fjord from Mon Plaisir, Fjellveien, Bergen. Painting by Johanne M. F. Lund (1886 – 1977). Digitalmuseum.no

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Journalist, PR and marketing consultant Tor Kjolberg has several degrees in marketing management. He started out as a marketing manager in Scandinavian companies and his last engagement before going solo was as director in one of Norway’s largest corporations. Tor realized early on that writing engaging stories was more efficient and far cheaper than paying for ads. He wrote hundreds of articles on products and services offered by the companies he worked for. Thus, he was attuned to the fact that storytelling was his passion.