Edvard Munch. An introduction

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EDVARD

MUNCH AN INTRODUCTION

ØYSTEIN USTVEDT

TRANSLATED FROM THE NORWEGIAN

BY ALISON MCCULLOUGH

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Ljabru Chaussee. Man leaning against a railing, 1891, pencil on paper, 23.1 x 30.8 cm.

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My art is a self-confession – in it I seek to clarify my relationship with the world. But at the same time I have always thought and felt that my art could also clarify other people’s quest for the truth.

Edvard Munch, 1927–34

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Contents

Introduction..................................................................... 9 Kristiania in the 1880s.................................................. 13 kristiania................................................................. 14 the home ....................................................................16 little education...................................................... 17 grünerløkka and karl johan...............................24 impressionism.......................................................... 28 the work of memory?.............................................. 29 girl to woman......................................................... 34 artist portraits.......................................................39 the draughtsman.....................................................42 åsgårdstrand.......................................................... 43 solo exhibition........................................................ 50 From the Modern Life of the Soul (1890–1900)............57 the world on display..............................................58 the saint-cloud manifesto ...................................59 from evening to melancholy..................................65 back on karl johan................................................. 67 the scream..................................................................67 madonna.................................................................... 73 scandal in berlin.................................................... 74 the berlin bohemians.............................................85 the frieze of life..................................................... 86 self-understanding................................................ 90 a modernist impulse................................................92 prints......................................................................... 96 the girls on the bridge........................................... 111

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The Artistic Renewal (1900–1916)............................... 115 the great portraits................................................117 stalwart people..................................................... 124 vitalism................................................................... 128 the death of marat................................................ 129 snow-covered landscapes.................................. 132 experiments............................................................ 136 the breakthrough................................................. 137 towards the sun......................................................147 why?.......................................................................... 153 Ekely (1916–1944)............................................................155 growth of the soil................................................ 159 workers................................................................... 160 spanish flu? ............................................................ 166 the interwar period............................................. 168 new versions.......................................................... 169 the ‘kill-or-cure remedy’.................................... 173 the models............................................................... 176 art and life............................................................ 182 night paintings...................................................... 189 two phases.............................................................. 189 new paths................................................................ 192 late style? .............................................................. 194 nazism...................................................................... 196 on the threshold................................................... 197 ripple effects......................................................... 198 afterword................................................................... 205 acknowledgements....................................................209 consulted literature and sources......................... 211 illustrations................................................................218

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Self-portrait, 1886, oil on canvas, 33 x 24.5 cm.

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Introduction

This book was born out of a wish to write an accessible introduction to Edvard Munch and his work. The existing literature on Munch is, of course, extensive and continually expanding, but it is also rather specialised, wide-ranging, and fragmented. I wanted to create an up-to-date and reliable publication, written for a more general readership. This book gives the reader an opportunity to become more closely acquainted with an artist who historically has meant much to many – and who continues to do so today.

Why does Munch’s oeuvre still fascinate us? Our preoccupation with Munch has reached new heights in recent decades, as demonstrated by record-breaking international auctions of his works and the writing of detailed doctoral theses about them. Large-scale exhibitions have been held at prestigious institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Tate Modern in London, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. In 2013, the Munch 150 anniversary exhibition in Oslo attracted a total of almost 500,000 visitors to the Munch Museum and the National Museum. Why this huge interest? One reason is that Munch created a number of iconic modern paintings – visually arresting works that have

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had an impact far beyond the initiated. The Scream, Madonna, The Kiss, Vampire and Melancholy – these are paintings many immediately recognise without necessarily knowing the name of the artist, or when and within what context the works were created.

But Munch’s oeuvre extends far beyond these key pieces, and incorporates much of his time’s secularisation – the transition from a society rooted in religion to a more worldly or secular one. The fact that Munch had abandoned his childhood faith became evident early on, but his paintings still convey remnants of religious thoughts and ideas. He also developed an unusually wide-ranging sphere of interest and a diverse artistic register, producing portraits, landscapes, depictions of everyday life, large figure compositions, small colour sketches, images of animals and interpretations of children. His works thematise the love, suffering and pain of the human condition, as well as the lyrical beauty of nature and the more mundane aspects of everyday life. Munch emerged as a painter, author, poet, graphic artist, draughtsman and photographer, and even created a few sculptures and films. His works bear witness to his multi-faceted and dramatically inclined nature; to an artist who was simultaneously a tradition-bound realist and an experimental modernist. He was an internationally oriented cosmopolitan, but also a person deeply rooted in place; a pillar of bourgeois society and a rebellious bohemian, both conventional and radical. Observation and reproduction remained important to Munch throughout his life – he was keenly aware of the world around him, taking note of novel ideas within the arts, popular culture, and science and technology – and he reinvented his artistic style several times over. Not all his works will find favour with everyone – but many of them continue to have a huge impact on audiences across the world.

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MUNCH

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Encounter in Space, 1898–99, woodcut, 19 x 25.5 cm.

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[Det syke barn, 1885–86, 120 x 118,5 cm Nasjonalmuseet.

GW 130]

The Sick Child, 1885–86, oil on canvas, 120 x 118.5 cm.

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