In the summer of 2026, twelve paintings will be taken down from a room that almost no outsiders have seen for a hundred years. Edvard Munch painted them in 1922 for the women’s dining room at the Freia chocolate factory in Oslo, and now they are on display to the public at the MUNCH Museum. It is a rare chance to encounter a different Munch from the one we think we know – and a good reason to take a closer look at why his subjects work so powerfully as a poster on the wall at home. Few artists capture the same range between anxiety and innocent summer as the man behind The Scream.
Quick facts: The exhibition “Edvard Munch and the Chocolate Factory” is on display at the MUNCH Museum in Oslo from May 21 to October 11, 2026. The so-called Freia Frieze consists of twelve monumental paintings that Munch created over the course of 1922, commissioned by industrialist Johan Throne Holst. It was one of only two public commissions Munch ever completed – the other was the decoration of the university’s assembly hall in Oslo.
The Man Behind The Scream – Anxiety, Love, and the Entire Frieze of Life
Edvard Munch was born in 1863 in Løten, Norway, and died in 1944. In between, he created one of the most cohesive bodies of work in art history: a series of motifs he called the Frieze of Life, a cycle about love, jealousy, anxiety, and death that he returned to again and again over the decades. Munch was not interested in depicting what a landscape looked like. He wanted to paint what it felt like to stand in the middle of it – and that is why the sky turned red, faces grew pale, and streets curved.
That very honesty is what makes Munch timeless. He took feelings that most people kept hidden and gave them a clear form. When you see one of his compositions, you recognize the state of mind before you have time to think about the technique, and it is that same immediate recognition that allows his visual world to keep speaking to new generations. Anyone who wants to surround themselves with art that dares to say something will find few stronger companions than Munch, which is why he belongs among the most sought-after names in the collection of artworks by famous artists.
His expression also paved the way for what later came to be called Expressionism, an approach in which inner experience shapes color and form more than the external eye. You can follow this thread further in our overview of Vincent van Gogh’s subjects, an artist who shared the conviction that brushstrokes should convey emotion, not merely describe.
Munch also had an unusual relationship with his own works. He called them “his children” and preferred not to part with them, which is one reason he created several versions of the same motif and kept so much of his work. When he died in 1944, he bequeathed his entire remaining collection to the City of Oslo - thousands of paintings, drawings and prints - which is the very foundation that allows the MUNCH Museum today to present such extensive exhibitions as the chocolate factory frieze. It’s worth remembering that an artist worked in series rather than creating isolated masterpieces when decorating, too: a motif can be repeated in several sizes and rooms without losing its impact.
The Freia Frieze 2026 - Twelve Paintings Hidden in a Chocolate Factory for a Hundred Years
The story behind the 2026 exhibition is almost too good to be true. In 1922, Johan Throne Holst, who ran the Freia chocolate factory in Rodeløkka, Oslo, commissioned Munch to decorate the women’s dining room. Throne Holst was unusually forward-thinking for his time and believed that factory workers, too, deserved real art to rest their eyes on during their lunch break. Munch drew on motifs from his own Frieze of Life and transformed them into twelve large wall paintings.
What’s remarkable is how quickly he worked. According to the museum, he completed the entire series in about two months, with light, swift brushstrokes, and the result was surprisingly bright for Munch. There’s no blood-red sky of terror here. Instead, we see boys fishing from the shore, couples strolling in the forest, and women picking fruit and watering flowers in a haze of pale blue summer light. It’s the Norwegian coastal summer at its gentlest.
“Munch wanted even those eating lunch in a factory to stand face to face with art - and for a century, generations of workers did just that, without the rest of the world knowing.”
For a hundred years, the paintings remained at the factory, tinted by tobacco smoke and cocoa dust, seen almost exclusively by those who worked there. That they are now being shown together at MUNCH for the first time is therefore a small sensation. The exhibition places the frieze in the context of Munch’s work in the 1920s and a Norway changing rapidly between the world wars, and reminds us that the anguished Munch was also an artist who wanted to reach a wide audience. If you’d like to read the original source, the exhibition is described on the MUNCH Museum website.
It also says something about how we value art. The fact that twelve original works by one of the world’s most famous artists could hang unnoticed in a staff dining room for a hundred years reminds us that art doesn’t always belong in a museum - sometimes it belongs in a living room, hallway or kitchen, where it can keep people company every day. That’s exactly the thinking behind decorating your home with art in the first place, and Munch would probably have liked the idea.
For those decorating their homes, the summer series is key: it shows that Munch’s work also encompasses light, warmth, and life. Those drawn to the sun-drenched subjects will find related tones among our nature subjects, where the Nordic light takes center stage, just as it does in Munch’s work.
The Scream in four versions – why this subject made such a lasting impression
No subject is as closely associated with Munch as The Scream. But there isn’t just one image – Munch created four versions between 1893 and 1910: two paintings and two pastels, plus a lithograph that allowed the subject to spread in print. The best-known painting, from 1893, is held at the National Gallery in Oslo, while one of the versions was later sold at auction for a record price, becoming one of the most expensive works of art ever sold.
The fact that the subject exists in several versions says something important: Munch was pursuing a feeling, not a definitive answer. The undulating figure with hands against its cheeks and the burning sky behind it is not a portrait of a person but of a state of mind – the moment when nature itself seems to scream through you. The universal anxiety, captured in a single silhouette, is why the image has become a symbol everyone understands, regardless of language.
The red sky in The Scream is connected to how color and emotion are linked in the brain, a subject we explore in our article on color psychology. Munch intuitively understood what research later confirmed: that a warm, intense color palette affects us on a level below the conscious mind. If you want to work with bold, saturated tones on your wall, you can start with our selection of posters featuring a color explosion.
Munch himself described in a diary entry how the idea for The Scream came about: he was walking along a road at sunset with two friends, felt tired, and suddenly the sky turned blood red. He stopped, leaned against a railing, and thought he heard an endless scream passing through nature. It is worth remembering that the subject does not depict a person screaming, but a person hearing the scream – a crucial distinction that explains why the image feels so unsettlingly close. Few works of art have managed to translate a pure sensory impression into an image with the same precision.
Munch on the wall at home – rooms, formats, and color
So how can you live with Munch in everyday life without your home feeling gloomy? The key is to choose the right side of him for the right room. Dark, intense motifs such as The Scream or Anxiety work best as a single, dominant focal point in a room with calm surroundings – a hallway or study with white or gray walls, where the image can carry the entire look on its own. This kind of placement requires space around it; hang it alone rather than in a tightly grouped arrangement.
The bright summer motifs related to the Freia frieze, on the other hand, work beautifully in bedrooms and living rooms, ideally in a larger format above a sofa or dresser. If you want to tone down the drama, a black-and-white graphic interpretation of a Munch motif can deliver the same powerful interplay of lines without the intense color, an idea you can develop further with our black-and-white posters. Anyone who likes Munch’s simplified, almost symbolic style can also explore related expressions among our abstract posters, where mood and form take precedence over precise depiction.
When it comes to size, Munch follows the same rules as other art: a poster in 50x70 cm or larger can be hung on a large, open wall, where it becomes the room’s conversation piece, while a smaller 30x40 cm format works in a group or in a narrower passageway. Keep in mind that Munch’s motifs often have a clear direction and sense of movement – let them point into the room rather than out toward a door.
The surrounding color scheme matters too. Munch’s bright summer motifs work well against warm, muted wall colors such as light beige, gray-green, or soft terracotta, as they pick up and amplify the sunny light in the image. The darker, more dramatic motifs, on the other hand, benefit from a cool, neutral background, where the intense colors in the artwork itself can stand unchallenged. A simple oak frame or a sleek black frame works with almost any Munch motif; avoid gilded or ornate frames, which can easily clash with the artist’s austere, modern style. Think of the frieze in the chocolate factory as a reminder: Munch always thought about the room the image would live in, not just the image itself.
Tip: Never hang a powerful Munch image opposite an equally powerful work by another artist. Two dominant images competing for attention cancel each other out. Instead, give the main artwork a quiet wall and keep the rest of the room subdued – then both the artwork and the room will shine.
One final point worth mentioning: Munch’s Symbolist generation is closely connected to Gustav Klimt, who was working at the same time on the other side of Europe, with love and transience as themes. Anyone looking to expand their collection in that direction will get a lot out of our guide to Gustav Klimt.
Frequently asked questions about Edvard Munch and his art
Edvard Munch proves that powerful art doesn’t have to be hard to live with - it just needs to be hung in the right place. Whether you’re drawn to the fiery sky in The Scream or the gentle light of summer in the Freia Frieze, there’s a side of Munch that suits your home. Let the 2026 exhibition at the chocolate factory be the starting point for a new way of seeing him, then explore our artworks by famous artists to find the image that says something about you and the room you want to bring to life.