Edvard Munch (12 December 1863-23 January 1944)
The Scream, 1893.
The Scream
'The scream' is the first emotional drawing that I have been exposed to at the age of 12. My first impression towards this drawing, at that point of time, was scary and horror. Nonetheless, like Vincent van Gogh's drawings, I valued this drawing a lot as it captured human emotions in it.
The Scream: A Brief Understanding of the Painting.
The Scream is Munch's most famous work and one of the most recognizable paintings in all art. It has been widely interpreted as representing the universal anxiety of modern man. Painted with broad bands of garish color and highly simplified forms, and employing a high viewpoint, the agonized figure is reduced to a garbed skull in the throes of an emotional crisis.
With this painting, Munch met his stated goal of "the study of the soul, that is to say the study of my own self". Munch wrote of how the painting came to be: "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." He later described the personal anguish behind the painting, "for several years I was almost mad… You know my picture, 'The Scream?' I was stretched to the limit—nature was screaming in my blood… After that I gave up hope ever of being able to love again."
The Scream exists in four versions: two pastels (1893 and 1895) and two paintings (1893 and 1910). There are also several lithographs of The Scream (1895 and later).
The 1895 pastel sold at auction on 2 May 2012 for US$119,922,500, including commission. It is the most colorful of the versions and is distinctive for the downward-looking stance of one of its background figures. It is also the only version not part of the collection of a Norwegian museum.
The 1910 painting was stolen in 2004, from The Munch Museum in Oslo, but recovered in 2006 with limited damage. The 1893 version (shown here) was likewise stolen and recovered from the National Gallery in Oslo in 1994.
'The scream' is the first emotional drawing that I have been exposed to at the age of 12. My first impression towards this drawing, at that point of time, was scary and horror. Nonetheless, like Vincent van Gogh's drawings, I valued this drawing a lot as it captured human emotions in it.
The Scream: A Brief Understanding of the Painting.
The Scream is Munch's most famous work and one of the most recognizable paintings in all art. It has been widely interpreted as representing the universal anxiety of modern man. Painted with broad bands of garish color and highly simplified forms, and employing a high viewpoint, the agonized figure is reduced to a garbed skull in the throes of an emotional crisis.
With this painting, Munch met his stated goal of "the study of the soul, that is to say the study of my own self". Munch wrote of how the painting came to be: "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." He later described the personal anguish behind the painting, "for several years I was almost mad… You know my picture, 'The Scream?' I was stretched to the limit—nature was screaming in my blood… After that I gave up hope ever of being able to love again."
The Scream exists in four versions: two pastels (1893 and 1895) and two paintings (1893 and 1910). There are also several lithographs of The Scream (1895 and later).
The 1895 pastel sold at auction on 2 May 2012 for US$119,922,500, including commission. It is the most colorful of the versions and is distinctive for the downward-looking stance of one of its background figures. It is also the only version not part of the collection of a Norwegian museum.
The 1910 painting was stolen in 2004, from The Munch Museum in Oslo, but recovered in 2006 with limited damage. The 1893 version (shown here) was likewise stolen and recovered from the National Gallery in Oslo in 1994.
My Inspiration : Edvard Munch's Artworks
Edvard Munch : Biography
Left: Self-Portrait, 1909. Right: Model On The Couch, 1924.
More information about Edward Munch.
(Please click at the pictures.)
(Please click at the pictures.)
Edvard Munch Quotes
"By painting colors and lines and forms seen in quickened mood I was seeking to make this mood vibrate as a phonograph does. This was the origin of the paintings in The Frieze of Life. ”
"To die is as if one's eyes had been put out and one cannot see anything any more. Perhaps it is like being shut in a cellar. One is abandoned by all. They have slammed the door and are gone. One does not see anything and notices only the damp smell of putrefaction.”
"No longer shall I paint interiors with men reading and women knitting. I will paint living people who breathe and feel and suffer and love.”
"Painting picture by picture, I followed the impressions my eye took in at heightened moments. I painted only memories, adding nothing, no details that I did not see. Hence the simplicity of the paintings, their emptiness.”
"I find it difficult to imagine an afterlife, such as Christians, or at any rate many religious people, conceive it, believing that the conversations with relatives and friends interrupted here on earth will be continued in the hereafter.”
Nature is not only all that is visible to the eye... it also includes the inner pictures of the soul.
"I learned early about the misery and dangers of life, and about the afterlife, about the external punishment which awaited the children of sin in Hell.”
"I find it difficult to imagine an afterlife, such as Christians, or at any rate many religious people, conceive it, believing that the conversations with relatives and friends interrupted here on earth will be continued in the hereafter.”
"I have no fear of photography as long as it cannot be used in heaven and in hell. ”
"From my rotting body, flowers shall grow and I am in them and that is eternity.”
Source: www.EdvardMunch.org.
"To die is as if one's eyes had been put out and one cannot see anything any more. Perhaps it is like being shut in a cellar. One is abandoned by all. They have slammed the door and are gone. One does not see anything and notices only the damp smell of putrefaction.”
"No longer shall I paint interiors with men reading and women knitting. I will paint living people who breathe and feel and suffer and love.”
"Painting picture by picture, I followed the impressions my eye took in at heightened moments. I painted only memories, adding nothing, no details that I did not see. Hence the simplicity of the paintings, their emptiness.”
"I find it difficult to imagine an afterlife, such as Christians, or at any rate many religious people, conceive it, believing that the conversations with relatives and friends interrupted here on earth will be continued in the hereafter.”
Nature is not only all that is visible to the eye... it also includes the inner pictures of the soul.
"I learned early about the misery and dangers of life, and about the afterlife, about the external punishment which awaited the children of sin in Hell.”
"I find it difficult to imagine an afterlife, such as Christians, or at any rate many religious people, conceive it, believing that the conversations with relatives and friends interrupted here on earth will be continued in the hereafter.”
"I have no fear of photography as long as it cannot be used in heaven and in hell. ”
"From my rotting body, flowers shall grow and I am in them and that is eternity.”
Source: www.EdvardMunch.org.