World class lighting design for world class art

ÅF’s Lighting team in Norway has just finished a large lighting project at The National Gallery in Oslo. The purpose has been to create the perfect lighting solution for the museum’s vast collection of fine art.

The project started in 2013 in connection with a large exhibition celebrating the world known painter Edward Munch’s 150 year anniversary. High demands to the exhibition environment lead to the decision that the existing daylight was not acceptable in relation to the continuous preservation of Munch’s paintings.

ÅF's Lighting team was hired to find a new lighting solution of high quality and with good color rendering to replace the existing combination of daylight and electrical lighting. A solution which had to make a minimum of intervention in the exhibition halls and which also had to live up to strict requirements regarding energy consumption.

Today the lighting in all major exhibition halls of The National Gallery is almost invisible:  Luminaires behind the glass ceiling illuminates the art collection with a comfortable lighting resembling the natural daylight and controllable LED luminaires, discretely integrated in the existing architecture, light up selected paintings.

The colors and textures of Edward Munch’s “The Scream” and other masterpieces can again be enjoyed and preserved at the same time.

Photographer: Tomasz Majewski.