Edvard Munch and the Chocolate Factory – MUNCH Museum, Norway

Experience, for the first time up close, the works Edvard Munch created for the Freia chocolate factory. The exhibition connects Munch’s art in public spaces with the history of cocoa, labour movements, and women’s emancipation.

Edvard Munch’s large-scale paintings for the Freia chocolate factory in 1922 were the first ever decorative artworks to be commissioned for a factory. It was also the first time such works had been commissioned for a women’s canteen. With the temporary relocation of these works from Freia’s headquarters to MUNCH, it will be possible to view them at close range, together with a rich selection of sketches and other related works.

Taking the frieze of paintings Munch created for Freia as a starting point, the exhibition explores his interest in making art for public spaces, as well as the project’s broader social context. At the time, Freia – Norway’s most iconic chocolate brand, both then and now – was seen as a progressive company which prioritised the wellbeing, health and welfare of its employees. Two thirds of Freia’s staff were women, and the exhibition highlights women’s campaign for rights, as both employees and human beings.

The exhibition also includes Munch’s preparatory sketches for the Freia frieze, and related works from the museum’s collection which illustrate his fascination with workers, women and children. A rich selection of documentary and archival material gives an extraordinary insight into the times Munch lived in, conditions in the chocolate factory and a changing society.