Edvard Munch and the Chocolate Factory: the bitter truth behind the Freia frieze

New exhibition in Oslo connects artist’s 1922 public work with the history of cocoa, the labour movement and women’s emancipation At first, to be among Edvard Munch ’s Freia frieze is almost to be swept up by a dance. Across the 12 canvases on display at Oslo’s Munch museum, fruit pickers’ arms reach with balletic poise, water flows from watering cans in unison, farewells are dramatically bid and synchronised couples move across a beach arm in arm. Even Munch’s brushstrokes, dominated by blues and greens, cannot sit still. But as you start to ponder why these scenes – commissioned in 1922 as p

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