Norwegian painter and printmaker whose
intense, evocative treatment of psychological
and emotional themes was a major influence on
the development of German Expressionism in the
early 20th century. His painting The Cry (1893)
is regarded as an icon of existential anguish. I
thanks Gianluca Ficca for his idea to present
this painting"Morning yawn" (1913)
Peintre
norvégien, Edvard Munch par ses
thèmes intensémment chargés
d'émotion, par sa puissance
évocatrice des troubles psychologiques a
grandement influencé le
développement de l'expressionisme
allemand à l'aube du XX°
siècle. Sa peinture le cri (1893) est
encore considérée comme une icone
de l'angoisse existentielle. Grâce
à Gianluca Ficca, j'ai le plaisir de vous
proposer son tableau "bâillement
matinal"(1913).
"Art," wrote Edvard Munch, "is the antithesis
of nature." Munch's most famous paintings
reflect his interior conflicts in intensely
subjective images that are often morbid and
disturbing. He spent most of his twenties in
Paris and Berlin. Paul Gauguin's work
particularly influenced him, demonstrating the
possibilities of distilling intense emotions
into universal experiences through simplified,
sinuous forms and evocative blocks of pure
color. By validating the concept of painting
one's emotional response to a subject, Munch
pointed the way for the development of German
Expressionist painting. His most ambitious work,
The Frieze of Life, begun in 1888, was never
completed. He hoped to create a room for this
series of paintings to deal with "the modern
life of the soul," but he ended up selling works
individually and then making new versions of
them.
By 1900 Munch had created his most important
works. In 1908 he suffered a nervous breakdown,
after which his paintings changed. Instead of
the revelation of private despair, he looked
into the world for more optimistic and universal
symbols. Munch's prints, which often shared
subject matter with his paintings, may have been
his most influential creations.
