The art in the University Aula
Experience Edvard Munch's unique Aula decorations in text and images.
The world-famous paintings in the University Aula tell stories of the university and the sciences – and of the sun as a symbol of life and creative forces.
They offer an intimate and monumental experience of Edvard Munch's characteristic imagery and use of colours, and hang in the very spot where Munch organised and painted them over a hundred years ago.
The Aula Paintings
The Sun
The university's fundamental task – enlightenment – expressed as a majestic sunrise.
The History
A people's approach to the field of history
Alma Mater
An image of the nourishing university
Harvesting Women
A tale about botany and the tree of knowledge
The Source
Nature's abundance of resources
Awakening Men in the Lightstream
The Aula's most experimental painting
Geniuses in the Lightstream
Roman patron spirits in baroque style
Women Turned Towards the Sun
Female figures in bold brushstrokes
Men Turned Towards the Sun
The women's counterpart – and an echo from antiquity
Munch and the Aula
?I wanted the decorations to form a complete and independent world of ideas, and I wanted their visual expression to be both distinctively Norwegian and universally human.?
– Edvard Munch
The Aula's marble busts
Portraits of six important figures in UiO's history
