| Edvard Munch (December 12, 1863 — January 23, 1944) Ekely, near Oslo is a Norwegian painter and graphic artist and expressionist. Munch suffered from manic-depressive psychosis.
Munch's most popular work is the painting “The Scream”, more precisely, it was a series of similar paintings. Initially, the painting was named “The Despair”. The horror image from this painting, which Munch perfected till the end of his life, now serves as one of the symbols of conceptual art in general.
Museum:
On August 22, 2004, two armed criminals stole the paintings “The Scream” and “Madonna” from the National Gallery in Oslo. In May 2006, three accused of the theft were sentenced to prison and in August 2006, police found the paintings. The paintings received some damage while they were in the hands of the thieves: Scratches and moisture traces were found on the paintings and the canvases were torn.
According to the representative of the museum, the stain in the corner of the painting “The Scream” remains visible. “Restorers did not want to make any irreversible actions”, - informed the museum, adding that in future, probably, methods may be invented, which allow the removal of the stain from the painting.
Munch Edvard (1863-1944) is a Norwegian painter, graphic artist and theater artist. He studied in Oslo at the Royal School of Art and Design (1881-1886) and in Krohg’s workshop (1882-1883). At the end of 1880-1900, Munch worked in France, where he experienced the influence of P.Gauguin, Henri Toulouse – Lautrec, Vincent Van Gogh in Germany and Italy. Munch's world outlook was formed under the influences of Hans Jaeger, A.Strindberg, K.Hamsun and other Scandinavian writers-symbolists, that defined his appeal towards the “Eternal” subjects of loneliness, fading, death (“The Sick Child”(1885-1886), National gallery, Oslo), which were characteristic for symbolism. From the beginning of the 1890s, Munch's creativity grew within the limits of the modern style, developing in this epoch (“Girls on a Jetty” (1901), National gallery, Oslo) and also found a number of new features (hard vortex-like outline drawing, discording color gamut, dynamical composition), which strengthen the tragic perception of the paintings and anticipate the occurrence of expressionism (“The Scream” (1893), National gallery, Oslo). The relationship of the male and female has been the central theme in the creativity of Munch. Woman in his works appear in various hypostasis: as the idealized image of a girl, as a personification of a suggestive female or as the psychic mother-death. The majority of paintings by Munch in the 1890-1910s are included into the unfinished cycle “The Frieze of Life”. Sharp expressiveness is inherent to the graphic works of Munch, the brilliant artist of xylography, etching and lithography (self-portrait, lithograph, 1895). Further, Munch handled monumental paintings, and painted scenes of city life and major landscapes in color. |
December 12 is the birthday of the famous Norwegian expressionist painter Edvard Munch who is best known for his Scream painting. Kids nowadays may not know the Scream painting, but they surely know the Scream movie mask which was modeled after the Scream painting.
