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In 1936, art collector, author
and stockbroker Rolf E. Stenersen donated large parts of his
extensive collection to what was then
the Municipality of Aker. The municipality was later merged with
the City of Oslo and today the Stenersen Collection is managed
as part of the city’s Art Collections. The original intention
was to build a museum to house the collection, but due to the
austerity of the post-war years plans were constantly being put
on hold. In fact it took fifty years before the collection found
a permanent home with the opening of the Stenersen Museum in
1994.
Rolf E. Stenersen’s generosity didn’t stop here,
however. In 1971 he donated his new collection of European and
Norwegian contemporary art to the City of Bergen, and in 1974
he presented his home, Villa Stenersen, to the Government for
use as an official residence. The building had been drawn by
Arne Korsmo in 1936 and is considered today as one of the most
important contributions to early Functionalism in Norway.
Edvard Munch is the key figure around whom Stenersen’s
collection is built; he is represented with numerous paintings,
drawings, watercolours and the largest private collection of
his prints anywhere in the world (around 400 works). The other
main component of the collection consists of works by inter-war
artists like Reidar Aulie, Bjarne Engebret, Erling Enger, Kai
Fjell, Erik Harry Johannessen, Ludvig Karsten, Henrik Lund, Rolf
Nesch, Søren Onsager, Aage Storstein, Olav Strømme
and Sigurd Winge. Stenersen was particularly taken up with the
more unconventional side of contemporary art and younger artists
as is evident in his interest in 1930s modernists and later the
young Jakob Weidemann.
Stenersen acquired his first work of art in the 1920s. Nineteen
years old he was knocking on the door of Munch’s studio
at Ekely outside Oslo. From this early contact grew an enduring
friendship between the world-famous artist and the businessman,
which also set the stage for what would become one of the largest
private collections of Munch’s art in Norway. Munch also
counselled the young Stenersen in how to build up a collection.
For instance, he encouraged Stenersen to acquire ‘works
by people trying to go new ways. Works that are exceptional in
some manner. Do not heed others’ opinions. A collection
must have a thread.’
The thread in the Stenersen collection begins with Edvard Munch
and Ludvig Karsten and leads on to several of the younger inter-war
artists. In contrast to the nationally orientated and Francophile
artistic circles of the day Stenersen laid greater store by works
informed by contemporary German Expressionism and international
Surrealism as well as art that ran contrary to the ‘good
taste’ of the time as defined by the acquisition policy
of the National Gallery and the opinion of the critical establishment.
In following Munch’s advice, Stenersen secured the livelihood
of many artists. He purchased early pictures of Erik Harry Johannessen,
hence saving them for posterity, and he made sure that Rolf Nesch
had enough to live on so that he could remain in Norway. Arne
Ekeland and Jakob Weidemann continued to work within Expressionism
and Surrealism in the footsteps of Nesch, Bjarne Engebret, Olav
Strømme, Kai Fjell and Erik Harry Johannessen.
The two movements were important in Stenersen’s own fiction
writing as well, predominantly in Godnatt da du (‘Nighty-Night
Then’, 1931) and Stakkars Napoleon (‘Poor Little
Napoleon’, 1934). After Munch’s death in 1944, Stenersen
wrote the highly personal biography: Edvard Munch. – Close-up
of a Genius (1944), one of the all-time best selling and most
published biographies of Munch.
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