Edvard Munch and Henrik Ibsen are two of the most eminent artists Norway has fostered and they have both left important marks in the world of art. They met, but they were never close friends. They were a generation apart.
They both frequented Grand Hotel, but did not gather around the same table. Munch and his friends often sat and watched Ibsen as he sat alone behindhis glasses, before him a bottle and a shot glass. Ibsen followed with a certain interest the painter’s strive for recognition. After being shown around the scandal-infused exhibition at Blomqvist in 1895, Ibsen said to Munch

“Believe me, you’ll find as I did, the more foes, the more friends”.

In the exhibition Meeting of Masters, Munch’s pictures are placed side by side with Ibsen’s drama so that their different art forms come into dialogue.

Munch’s motives are – in the same way as Ibsen’s drama – “experienced”.