Les Gets World Cup XCO Results
I like art museums and have recently tried to visit a few when traveling1. I was recently in Oslo, Norway, with a few hours to kill and we were a stone’s throw from the Munch Museum and the opportunity to see Edvard Munch’s iconic work, The Scream.
The Scream is mandatory viewing. If you go to the Munch Museum, you’re not leaving without seeing it. There are four finished versions of the artwork, and the Munch Museum has two: One painted and one pastel. To protect the pieces from extended exposure to light, the museum rotates these two versions and a lithograph in a glass enclosure. Each version is viewable for thirty minutes and hidden from view for an hour after that.
If you’re unlucky or impatient, you may be stuck seeing only the lithograph. That’s what initially happened to me, but I persevered and stuck around until the lazy susan of priceless artwork rotated to show a more colorful version.
It was a madhouse in the small exhibit room, with more elbows thrown than on the starting grid of your typical Superprestige cyclocross race. All of these people get just a glimpse of this masterpiece before being pressured to move out of the way for the group behind so they, too, can get their obligatory selfie. It’s not an ideal art-viewing experience.
The National Museum of Norway is not two kilometers away from the Munch Museum. It’s a great museum and less than a 30-minute walk from the Munch. It has a wonderful Rothko exhibit and a Scandinavian design display that’s a ton of fun to walk through. It also has one of the four versions of The Scream2.
The main difference between the Munch Museum’s Scream and the National Museum’s Scream is that nobody is viewing the one at the National Museum. It’s wild. When we visited, the only people in the exhibit were two security guards whose conversation we interrupted.
Two kilometers away at the Munch Museum, nerves are frayed, and tempers are running hot as people jostle each other for the opportunity to appreciate art. At the National Museum, we could’ve looked at the piece uninterrupted all day long.
The National Museum doesn’t make a big deal about having one of The Scream versions. I have to believe this is on purpose. It’s by far the better experience.
I’m sure there’s a more significant message here about capitalism vs. public support for the arts, marketing, and maybe the power of Google Maps, but I’ll let you use your brainpower on that. The main takeaway is that if you go to the Munch Museum, which you should, do yourself a favor and also visit the National Museum.
Now that I’ve filled enough space to ensure today’s Les Gets XCO results remain spoiler-free, I’ll leave you with this final thought: Did the movie poster for 1976’s Network inspire the cover art for 1985’s eponymous Bad Brains album?
U23 Women’s XCO
U23 Men’s XCO
Women’s Elite XCO
Men’s Elite XCO
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The fourth version, another pastel, sold at auction for $119.9 million in 2012, the highest amount paid for a work of art.