Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art

The Astrup Fearnley Museum (Norwegian: Astrup Fearnley Museet) is a privately owned contemporary art museum in Oslo in Norway. It was founded and opened to the public in 1993. The collection's main focus is the American appropriation artists from the 1980s, but it is currently developing towards the international contemporary art scene, with artists like Jeff Koons, Richard Prince, Cindy Sherman, Matthew Barney, Tom Sachs, Doug Aitken, Olafur Eliasson, and Cai Guo-Qiang. The museum holds 6-7 temporary exhibitions each year. Astrup Fearnley Museum collaborates with international institutions and produces exhibitions that travel worldwide. In 2012 the museum moved to two new buildings designed by Renzo Piano in Tjuvholmen. History The Fearnley family of shipping magnates is descended from romantic painter Thomas Fearnley The museum opened in 1993, and was funded by two philanthropic foundations established by descendants of the Fearnley shipping family , the Thomas Fearnley Foundation and the Heddy and Nils Astrup Foundation . The Thomas Fearnley Foundation was established by shipping magnate Thomas Fearnley (1880–1961) in 1939; he was the son of shipping magnate Thomas Fearnley (1841–1927) and grandson of romantic painter Thomas Fearnley . The Heddy and Nils Astrup Foundation was named for Nils Ebbessøn Astrup , who was a. The collection The permanent collection consists of works of Norwegian and International Contemporary Art. The museum collection was originally based on a private collection that goes back thirty years and has significantly developed with the many changes in modern/contemporary art. There has been an interest in German Abstract Expressionism , English modern painting, and the Young British Artists . Presently the collection is orientated towards the young American art scene. It also encompasses works pertaining to the steadily increasing global art community. The main areas of curatorial expertise in the museum are art from the.