In 1928, the deed was signed and an architectural design competition was announced. The participants in the competition were bound by a number of clauses and provisions. The sixty-two design proposals submitted were displayed in an exhibition that was covered by most of the capital’s newspapers, and the winners were the architects Gudolf Blakstad and Herman Munthe-Kaas with their proposal “Felix”.

The construction work started in the spring of 1929 and concluded around a year later, with major changes made to the original proposal. The building is cast concrete, with bricks arranged on the outside in a pattern to demonstrate that they are not load-bearing. Rooms were added at the rear of the building that were rented to the Norwegian National Academy of Fine Arts, with classrooms and professors’ studios on three floors.

On October 1 1930, a sunny autumn day, Kunstnernes Hus opened with the Autumn Exhibition. King Haakon, Crown Prince Olav and Crown Princess Märtha were present. In the newspapers, the house was described as Europe's "most modern exhibition building". The opening marked the beginning of a new era for Norwegian artists: they finally got their own house! The press stated that the Autumn Exhibition had had a renaissance with the new premises. Twice as many works were submitted for jury trial as before, and as many as 400 works were exhibited.

Building the house cost 650,000 Norwegian kroner. The newspaper Tidens Tegn compared its facade to a piece of art, stating further that the opening of the house "heralds a new era for our art life as a whole".

Kunstnernes hus staircase

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