Astrup Fearnley Museet for Moderne Kunst

Astrup Fearnley Collection

04 May - 31 Dec 2013

Installation view of the exhibition
ASTRUP FEARNLEY COLLECTION
4 May - 31 December 2013

The Astrup Fearnley Collection has a history that dates back to the 1960s and has always concentrated on individual works and artists, rather than on movements or historical periods. Its distinctive focus is on acquiring major pieces of contemporary art that push the boundaries of the artistic canon.

This exceptional collection does not aspire to present an encyclopedicoverview of international contemporary art. Instead, it is an agglomeration of works by artists who occupykey positions in the field, either because they have createdvisual languages, objects and images of great originality andquality, or because they have reinvented significant aspects ofcultural production. This means that certain artists have an outstanding presence in the collection, and are presented in depth,showing the development and the coherence of their work.

Over the last decade, the museum has concentrated intensively on American contemporary artists, especially the younger generation. More recently, the focus has been on works by important European, Brazilian, Japanese, Chinese,and Indian contemporary artists. The museum’s aim is to collect and present these major works by international contemporary artists in illuminating depth, but also in dialogue with the Norwegian art scene, and to have a real presence both in the city of Oslo and in the international art world.