4/8/12

Happy 100th Birthday, Miss Sonja Hennie!

Picasso, Femme au fauteuil, 1943: Sonja Henie and Niels Onstad 1960



No other Norwegian women have ever been so famous as the ice skater and actress, Sonja Henie. On the 8th of April 2012 it’s exactly 100 years since the athlete was born. Henie won more Olympic and World titles than any other ladies figure skater and at the height of her acting career she was one of the highest paid stars in Hollywood. In her lifetime she was also a patroness of modern art accumulating a large collection with her husband that later formed the basis for the Henie-Onstad Art Centre at Høvikodden in Bærum near Oslo, Norway.

The anniversary exhibition presenting Sonja Henie as art collector is the first in a series of three experimental shows to profile the Henie Onstad collection in 2012. In collaboration with contemporary artists, Henie Onstad Art Centre will display more of its collection in the setting of specially constructed installations. This exhibition in honour of Sonja Henie is supplemented with an entirely new work by the contemporary Norwegian artist Birgitte Sigmundstad.