Edvard Munch

Yesterday I paid a call on a local attraction that I don't visit often enough, the Princeton University Art Museum, which is about five minutes from where I live and completely free. I was moved to do so by an exhibit titled: Edvard Munch, Symbolism in Print, which was on loan from the The Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Edvard Munch is world famous for one particular painting, The Scream, which is one of the most iconic images in Western art. You can see it on everything from t-shirts to coffee mugs to blow-up punching dolls. The Scream, which has been stolen a few times, was not part of the exhibit here, which limited itself to 26 pieces, all of them some kind of print, whether woodcut, lithograph, or intaglio. After focusing so much of my knowledge of Munch on The Scream, it was nice to see what else he had done.

Munch was a Norwegian, born in 1863. His work, as suggested by the title of the exhibition, falls into the category of symbolism based in the time period. His family was touched early by death--his mother and sister both died of tuberculosis. Several of the prints on display dealt with his sister's illness and death, including studies of her lying against her pillow, and then a death room scene, Death in the Sickroom, the her bedroom filled with grieving family members, her hand just barely visible in the bed in the background.

Another common theme is loneliness, as we see a repeated theme of two people standing on a shore, each print titled: Two People: The Lonely Ones. And while there are romantic images--two prints are of a couple kissing, their mouths coming together as if to form one head out of two, there are also more biological representations, such as a lithograph titled Madonna, which has a woman looking somewhat ghostly, bordered by spermatozoa, and a forlorn fetus in the lower left-hand corner.

The image I've chosen to accompany this post is Anxiety, which has echoes of The Scream. It has the same feel to it, the same red-streaked sky. The Scream is often misunderstood, as some feel it is the anguished man in the picture who is screaming. But no, he is hearing a scream. This is Munch's explanation of The Scream: "I was walking down the road with two friends when the sun set; suddenly, the sky turned as red as blood. I stopped and leaned against the fence, feeling unspeakably tired. Tongues of fire and blood stretched over the bluish black fjord. My friends went on walking, while I lagged behind, shivering with fear. Then I heard the enormous, infinite scream of nature."

The painting, as well as this print, (which were done in the 1890s) can be interpreted as predicting the 20th century, what with its two world wars. From observing Munch's prints, it is clear that he was probably not a sunny personality. He did live long enough to see the first World War and the Nazi invasion of Norway, where many of his paintings were stolen by the Nazis. Most of them have been recovered. He died in 1944 at the age of 80.