Edvard Munch (1863-1944) is a great artist and this is a great show. There is much more to his art than "The Scream", though contained in all of his art, is raging emotion, with a scream of sadness or despair always implicit. This is an all encompassing show with many paintings that have never before been seen in the U.S. I was enthralled by his ability to express intense feeling in a way, no other artist does.
The sun never sets in Norway in the summer, so Munch had to paint his night paintings in the dead of night. "The Storm" (Oil, 1893) is a standout. The houses seem to have faces, and brood with emotion. The ghostlike figure is backed up by wailing women. A mesmerizing haunted painting.
"Starry Night (Oil, 1922-24) gives Van Gogh a run for his money. A glorious bright starry night, and large shadows in the snow. Again, window light between the trees that seems to speak, and an ominous face in the lower right corner (he often has shadows, faces, silhouettes, in lower corners of his paintings.
There are a series of paintings that evolve around the bridge that figures so prominently in "The Scream". Munch said that Nature seemed to scream up from the water under the bridge. He was someone who was severely depressed and struggled as he said, "to stand up" each day. He did live to 81 which means his struggle did not defeat him. Perhaps, because he painted his grief and despair.
,One seminal event that caused him grief, was the death of his sister, Sophie, from TB, when Munch was 12. Forty years later, he painted his grieving family at her bedside. This painting so captures the horror that death of a loved one, especially premature death, brings. There is a very ghoulish painting, "Inheritance" in which a mother holds her syphilitic baby on her lap.
While almost every painting has a dark view of life, one is filled with passion and sexuality. So let's end with "The Kiss" (Oil, 1897). How powerful this is, even though, or perhaps, because, all facial features are erased.
While almost every painting has a dark view of life, one is filled with passion and sexuality. So let's end with "The Kiss" (Oil, 1897). How powerful this is, even though, or perhaps, because, all facial features are erased.
For a larger view of these paintings, go to my Instagram: pamwings (Pam Malone)
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