National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design

The National Gallery was established in 1842 as the Norwegian States Central Museum for Visual Arts. Since 1882 its location has been on Universitetsgata in Oslo, in a building designed by Heinrich Ernst and Adolf Schirmer. The building's exterior and interior was listed by Riksantikvaren (Cultural Heritage) in January 2012.

Art historian Jens Thiis was director at The National Gallery between 1908 and 1941. Thiis had an international outlook and bought a series of central works for the museum's collection. The museum also received large donations from wealthy heirs Olaf Schou (1909), Christopher Paus (1918), and Chr. Langaard (1922) during this period. Paus, a relative of Henrik Ibsen who lived in Rome, amassed one of the largest collections from classical antiquity in Northern Europe, and turned down an offer from Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek to acquire the collection, instead donating it to the National Gallery where it was meant to become the foundation of a museum or department dedicated to classical antiquity.

The museum has a vast collection of Norwegian Romantic Nationalism movement paintings, as well as Edvard Munch's works. The main part of the collection of older art consists of Norwegian paintings and sculptures from the 1800s.  

Edvard Munch's Scream and some of his other renowned works are among the highlights of the National Gallery's collection. Other significant artists include J.C Dahl, Adolph Tidemand, Hans Gude, Harriet Backer, and Christian Krohg. The collection from the 20th century shows the evolution within Norwegian visual arts with references and key works from Nordic and foreign art within paintings, sculpture, photos, video and other mediums.

In 1990 the museum's collection from after 1945 was transferred to the newly established Museum of Contemporary Art.

The launch of a new permanent exhibition "Everyone is Talking About the Museum" in 2005 increased visitor numbers but also had some negative reaction.

The most heavily debated decision was to divide the museum's ‘Munch Room’ and show Munch's works together with other contemporary painters. Another decision was to replace the chronological principle with a thematic one. The permanent exhibition was once again revisited in 2011. ‘The Dance of Life: Collections from the Ancients To 1950’, the Munch Room and the chronological principle has been reinstated. The new permanent exhibition has been praised as ‘a short version of the world’s art history instead of a revisit of the museum’s own collection’.

The museum's extensive graphic and drawing collection consists of approximately 50,000 Norwegian and foreign works, and spans from the end of the 1400s to current day. Central artists include Durer, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Goya, Picasso, Manet, Rafael, Rubens, Muncb, Tidemand, Dahl, Werenskiold, and Kittelsen. Newer Norwegian graphics and drawn art is also well represented.

The Museum for Contemporary Art was established in 1988 and was located at Bankplassen 4 in Oslo. The collection consists of works from the former National Exhibition and National Gallery, including later purchases. The 1907 museum building, designed by Ingvar Hjorth, formerly housed the Norwegian Bank. The museum opened for the public in 1990 and became a part of the National Museum in 2003.

The museum has alternating exhibitions in the 2000 m² facilities. In and outside the museum installations by the artists Per Inge Bjørlo, Inner Space VS. the Goal (1990) and the gallery room is dedicated to Louise Bourgeois. The collection consists of over 5000 Norwegian and foreign works from the period of 1945 to now. Known Norwegian artists within the collection are Anna-Eva Bergman, Leonard Rickhard, Bjarne Melgaard, and Marianne Heske. Known international artists include Mario Merz, Cindy Sherman, Ilya Kabakov, and Isaac Julien. The collection is continually expanding with yearly purchases of art work.  

The Architecture Museum was established by the Norwegian Architects National Association in 1975 and became a part of the National Museum 1 July 2003. The building on Kongens Gate 4 was in use up until March 2005. The museum renamed the National Museum – Architecture, opened in 2008 at a new location, Bankplassen 3 in Oslo.

The museum is located in three separate buildings that are built together. The main building – the oldest section – was the Norges Banks Christianiaavdeling which was designed by Christian H. Grosch and was finished in 1830. Diagonally behind is Sverre Fehns addition from 2002 – the Ulltveit-Moe Pavilion. There is also a storage building from 1911, designed by Henry Bucher.

National Museum – Architecture shows alternating exhibits from the collection that consists of models, drawing, and photographs.  The National Museum has Norway's most important architecture collection, featuring more than 300,000 items dated from the 1830s to current day. The collection highlights and documents different aspects of architectural culture and is mainly made up of private archives or fragments of archives. These span over a large variation of materials and mediums: architectural drawings, photographs, models, conceptual studies, sketchbooks, correspondences and ephemera. The collection's main focus is the 1900s, and names within Norwegian architectural history such as Ove Bang, Blakstad of Munthe, Jan & Jon, Knut Knutsen, Arne Korsmo, Christian Norberg-Schulz, Magnus Poulsson, and Erling Viksjø are well represented. Pritzker Prize winner Sverre Fehns is a highlight of the collection.

The Art Industry Museum is located at St. Olavs gate 1. The building was constructed in 1902 after Kristiania County decided, in 1896, to construct a new building at the then Brandt løkke, on the corner of Ullevålsveien and St. Olavs gate. In 1897 they had an architecture competition, and of the 14 proposals the 26-year old architect Adolf Brendo Greve was declared the winner. Due to his young age he asked the more experienced Ingvar Hjorth for assistance.

The museum itself was created by the initiative of professor Lorentz Dietrichson and antiquarian Nicolay Nicolaysen in 1876, and the museum was founded by the country that same year. That makes the museum amongst the first in Norway and one of the earliest art industry museums in Europe. This initiative was most likely based on the newly founded state of Norway's need to show themselves as an independent and individual nation.

The collection of design and crafts spans from ancient Greek vases and East-Asian art objects to European fashion history. It includes fashion and textiles, furniture, silver, glass, ceramic, design and crafts. The unique Baldishol tapestry from the 1100s, the royal costume collection, Nøstetangen glass, Norwegian silver and Herrebø earthenware are among the highlights of the collection.

This was established in 1953 as a government agency under the culture department, to send travelling exhibitions of Norwegian and Nordic art to other parts of the country. The agency sent out 142 exhibitions in the 34 years it existed. The National Exhibition built up their own collections, as well as borrowed works for their exhibits. The main aim and motto is ‘Art to the People’.

When the Museum for Contemporary Art was established in 1988, the National Gallery became a part of the museum, from 1992 with the name ‘Riksutstillinger’(National Exhibitions).

The National Exhibitions was a body for disseminating national art, whose task was to create interest and understanding for visual arts, crafts, photography, design, and architecture. It was a national competence centre for dissemination, exhibition technique and design. National Exhibitions had five departments: administration, programme, dissemination, information, and department for exhibition design.  

From 1992 to 2005 it also had the function of organizing exhibitions outside the usual – such as large exhibitions from other continents (Saana Africa (Art from South-Africa), Fråvær (Absence), Vietnam Express, etc.). From 2005 the National Exhibition was disbanded, its dissemination responsibility transferred to Landsdekkende (Nationwide) Program, a part of the National Museum for Art, Architecture, and Design.