Art Historian and Curator Kari J. Brandtzæg
Kari J. Brandtzaeg has been a curator at the Munch Museum since fall 2015. She completed her thesis in 1995 on Russian art at the turn of the last century. Since then, she has worked as an art critic and curator at several establishments, among them KORO and the National Museum in Oslo, where she curated several high-profile exhibitions including Watch Out! Art from Moscow and St. Petersburg(2004) and Kiss the Frog! The Art of Transformation (2005). In 2015, she received the Norwegian Art Critics’ Award for the exhibition The Shadow of War: Political Art in Norway 1914-2014. She was a PhD fellow at the University of Oslo from 2009 to 2013, and has written articles for various national and international publications. At the Munch Museum, she was co curator of Towards the Forest -Knausgaard on Munch (2017) and the curator behind the exhibitions Head by Head: Cronqvist, Bjrlo, Munch (2017-2018) and The Swan Princess: Russian Art 1880-1910 (2019).
Art Historian and Curator Kari J. Brandtzæg
Get a rare look at one of Edvard Munch’s most uplifting works, The Sun, and explore the intriguing meaning behind the iconic painting with Art Historian and Curator of the Munch Museum, Kari J. Brandtzaeg. Featuring vibrant, multi-colored sunrays illuminating a rocky Norwegian seascape, The Sun is sure to inspire you, and after viewing the painting and discussing its history, join Kari for an informative question and answer session to learn more.
Kari J. Brandtzæg is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Oslo with a project on trans-national orientations among Norwegian social engaged artists in the 1920s and 30s. In 1997 she had a grant from FOR ART and curated the show “Network–Glasgow” at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Oslo.
In 2001–2002 she was a research fellow for the exhibition and book project Norway–Russia: Neighbours for a thousand years, Scandinavian Academic Press 2004. From 2002–2006 curator for several shows on modern and contemporary art for The National Museum in Oslo, Norway among others; “Watch Out Art from Moscow and St. Petersburg” in 2004 and “Kiss the Frog! The Art of Transformation” in 2005. Currently she is the curator for the upcoming exhibition “The Shadow of War. Political Art in Norway 1914 – 2014” at the House of Artists, Oslo January – March 2015. Brandtzæg has published numerous articles in periodicals, exhibition catalogues and books and was an art critic for the daily newspaper Dagbladet 2009–2008. Recent publications and projects include; «Kunst på barrikadene. Henrik Sørensen og Willi Midelfart som representanter for en norsk avantgarde i mellomkrigstiden», Per Bäckström & Bodil Børset (red.) Norsk Avantgarde, Novus forlag; Oslo 2011, The Past through the Eyes of the Present, exh. catalogue and curator for the “Nordic Art Today: Conceptual Debts, Broken Dreams, New Horizons”, Loft Projet Etagi, St. Petersburg 2011, “Art, war and pacifism in light of Susan Sontag’s Regarding the Pain of Others”, Agora, 1/2012, Aschehoug, and “Morten Krohg and art’s oppositional role” Tania Ørum(ed.) A Cultural History of the Avant-garde in the Nordic Countries vol. III, Rodopi B.V. Amsterdam-New York 2014.
