Edvard Munch Archetypes

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The exhibition focuses on Edvard Munch and aims to show him not only as a symbol of modern anguish but as a key creator in shaping contemporary artistic sensibility. It highlights the least known aspects of his creative force and ability to synthesize contemporary man's obsessions.

The exhibition is about the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch. It brings together 80 of his works spanning his long career to explore themes in his work like love, desire, angst, and death. His art was influenced by symbolism and expressionism.

The text discusses Munch's vitalist period where he focused on more earthly subjects like nature and labor. It also mentions his nudes and interest in the artist-model relationship in his later years.

Edvard Munch.

Archetypes
From 6 October 2015 to 17 January 2016
Curators: Paloma Alarc and Jon-Ove Steihaug

The Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza is hosting Edvard Munch. Archetypes, the first


exhibition to be held on the Norwegian artist in Madrid since 1984. Organised with the
generous collaboration of the Munch-Museet in Oslo, the show brings together a
selection of eighty works by the artist, who is hailed today as one of the fathers of
modern art along with Czanne, Van Gogh and Gauguin.

The latest publications and most recent exhibitions have succeeded in freeing Munch
of many of the stereotypes to which he has been subjected in order to show him not
only as a universal symbol of the anguish and alienation of the modern man but, above
all, as a key creator in shaping contemporary artistic sensitivity. Curated by Paloma
Alarc and Jon-Ove Steinaug, Edvard Munch. Archetypes aims to follow the same path,
focusing on the most unknown aspects of his creative force and ability to synthesise
contemporary mans obsessions.

Although Munch never abandoned figurative art, he broke away from the visible world
and explored the hidden spiritual dimension of reality in order to immortalise the most
universal themes of life, love and death through an innovative artistic language that
evolved from symbolism to expressionism.

Images, from left to right:


Edvard Munch. Girls on the Pier, 193335. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas / Puberty, 191416.
Munch-Museet, Oslo / Self-portrait in front of the House Wall, 1926. Munch-Museet, Oslo
Further information and images:
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza Press Office.
Paseo del Prado, 8. 28014 Madrid. Tel. +34 914203944 /913600236.
Fax+34914202780.prensa@museothyssen.org;www.museothyssen.org;
http://www.museothyssen.org/microsites/prensa/2015/Munch
Against the current of the modern style

Closely linked to the literary and artistic circles of his day throughout his lifetime,
Edvard Munch contributed with his oeuvre to the advancement of modernity that took
place in all areas of European culture in the late nineteenth century, together with
prominent figures such as Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen, Swedish writer August
Strindberg and German
philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.

Muchs art stems from a


particular mixture of artistic
traditions, progressive literary
trends and esoteric speculations
not to mention Nordic myths
with which he creates a modern
mythology with a determined
experimental approach against
the current of the modern style,
as he stated. Using archetypes, Woman, 1925. Munch-museet, Oslo
primeval images of human
behaviours, Munch succeeds in establishing multiple relations between the external
signs of the physical world and the most hidden spiritual dimension.

Existential obsessions such as love, desire, angst, jealously, illness or death, and moods
such as melancholy, loneliness or submission are shown in his work through the bodily
attitude of the figures, who are paralysed in a sort of static tension at the precise
moment when their gesture expresses the feeling they are intended to represent, and
also determine the setting or spatial treatment of the composition. The flat, sinuous
forms, symbolic colour, expressive distortion of the body and the use of experimental
engraving textures and techniques are also essential elements of his artistic
vocabulary.

Art comes from one human beings compulsion to communicate to another

The painter seeks to question the spectator with these direct, dramatic and intense
images which attract and hold our attention. The forms and means of the artistic
language should be subordinate to its ability to communicate and it is from this desire
to reach as many people as possible that another of the essential aspects of his work
springs: the obsessive repetition of thematic sequences; a perpetual recycling of
images, which he reworks in different media, pushing the boundaries of traditional
techniques in an unorthodox manner and experimenting with them to give rise to new
meanings. Indeed, repetition is one of the basic features of the concept of archetype.
A long and prolific career

The exhibition brings together a total of


eighty works many of them never
previously shown in Spain which span
the Norwegian artists long and prolific
career. Half of the loans are from the
Munch-Museet in Oslo and the rest
belong to other prestigious institutions
from all over the world, such as the
Kunsthaus in Zurich, the Kunstmuseum in
Basel, Tate London, the MoMA in New
Atardecer, 1888. Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid York and the National Gallery of
Washington, as well as a few international
collections such as the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, the only one in Spain to own works
by Munch both in its permanent collection and on deposit from the Carmen Thyssen-
Bornemisza Collection.

The exhibition layout is based around this large repertoire of emotional archetypes
(melancholy, love, death) and the various settings in which they are depicted (the
coast, the sickroom, the abyss, the forest, night, the artists studio), combining early
works with later versions, graphic work and paintings throughout the show in order to
underline the thematic and existential circularity of his oeuvre.
Melancholy:

Influenced by impressionism and, above all, the symbolism of some turn-of-the-


century artists, Munch soon eschewed the
naturalist trends of his formative years and
broke away from all the artistic and social
conventions of his day. In addition to an
early landscape painted outdoors, this
section brings together key works for
understanding the painters future
evolution, such as Evening (1888), which
shows his sister Laura, who later suffered
from mental illness, alone and self-
engrossed.
Mother and Daughter, 1897. Nasjonalmuseet for
kunst, arkitektur og design, Oslo
From this point onwards Munch shifted towards a formal reduction of the landscape
and the faces of his figures gradually lost their features. Evening. Melancholy and its
successive versions and Mother and Daughter and the Solitary Ones, from different
periods, are examples of the new artistic, symbolic and poetic language that heightens
the emotional intensity. The impressionistic technique that is still evident in the
portrait of Laura is gradually replaced by a synthetic language of undulating
brushstrokes, while the clashing colours and marked two-dimensionality distance him
from the objective impressions of earlier art and convey subjective concepts.

Death:

Disease and insanity and death were the black angels that stood by my cradle, stated
Edvard Munch, who nevertheless viewed them as an allegory of creativity. The painter
regarded physical and mental deterioration as a state in which the aesthetic
imagination could surpass the boundaries of
reason and give rise to experimentation.

Most of what I have done since had its genesis


in this picture; the Sick Child and its many
variations in both painting and engraving are
the embodiment of the existential feeling of
fear of death and show this open creative
process in which each version contributes
something to elicit what I felt during the first
impression. The Sick Child, 1907.
Tate, presented by Thomas Olsen
Death in the Sickroom (1896), with its
theatrical setting imbued with drama and grief, and Agony, in which he represents the
physical experience of death in his sketchy technique of large, expressive patches of
colour, are some of the iconic works on view in this section.

Panic:

In parallel with the scientific and technological innovations of the second half of the
nineteenth century, the new, crowded urban environment changed modern mans
perception of his relationship with the world. Anguish, anxiety and uncertainty
suddenly replaced old ideals and convictions. Munch was terrified of crowds and found
the city traumatic a place of stress and agitation where man was subjected to many
negative experiences.
The lithographic version of The Scream on view in the
exhibition contains all the existential anguish of the
original work, in which a beautiful leisure space is
transformed into a scene of disintegration and
destruction of a rational order, and the sinister figure
with a skull-like head grimacing in horror desperately
seeks our gaze, while covering his ears to blot out the
sound of the deafening shriek that surrounds him.
Other engravings and woodcuts on display in the
gallery, such as Angst, Panic and Panic in Oslo,
represent visual dramas with terrified figures who are
swept along by the anonymous, anguished seething
The Scream, 1895 .The Metropolitan crowds in the citys streets.
Museum of Art, New York, bequest of
Scofield Thayer, 1982 Woman:

Munch made women the centre of his pictorial universe. Woman (1925) represents
three stages in the biological process of womens sex life: the femme fragile, the
femme fatale and the mature woman. A synthesis of
his conception of women based on these two opposite
archetypes would be repeated throughout his oeuvre:
the idealised woman (femme fragile) and the
demonised woman (femme fatale).

The first the ideal, chaste and delicate woman is


found in Puberty (191416) and Summer Night. The
Voice (1894), works with which Munch succeeded in
establishing an unparalleled paradigm of the awakening
of sexuality in women, creating a model that would
later be imitated by artists such as Schiele, Kirchner and
Picasso; and the other image of the seductive,
threatening and dominating women appears in works Woman with Red Hair and Green
such as the Woman with Red Hair and Green Eyes. Sin Eyes. Sin, 1902. Kunsthaus Zurich

(1902).

Melodrama:

The theatre of Ibsen and Strindberg influenced the composition of some of the
Norwegian artists paintings, as can be seen in the Green Room series. The figures
appear to be on a small stage, converted into actors moving before us with distorted
expressions of anxiety and pain or in an introspective attitude. The space is stifling,
with a cluttered interior decorated with wallpaper and overly large furniture,
accentuating the sensation of claustrophobia.
Jealousy, in its various painted or
lithographic versions, brings male and
female figures face-to-face with the
spectator, once again showing him to be
in tune with his friend Strindberg, who
also dealt with the subject in his writings
and in a painting; for both, the experience
of love stimulates feelings of jealously,
anguish, uncertainty or despair. Jealousy, 1913. Stdel Museum, Frankfurt am Main,
on deposit from a private collection
Love:

In most depictions of love in Munchs oeuvre there is a certain delight in this dark side
of feelings. Such is the case of The Kiss, of which there are several versions in this
gallery, and in which the intertwined figures gradually lose their identity, from the
earliest compositions in which the two figures
appear kissing passionately by a window, to
graphic versions showing the total symbiosis of the
lovers in an abstract form.

The versions of Vampire display a perverse


sensuality, with the naked figure embracing its
victim, a man in a submissive position enveloped
by her long red hair as she saps his vital energy;
and the kiss turns into a bite and the symbol of
Vampire in the Forest, 191618.
possession, both physical and psychological.
Munch-museet, Oslo
Nocturnal scenes:

Taking as a point of departure the landscape as a reflection of emotional tension,


Munchs night scenes have an even more accentuated psychic content thanks to their
full repertoire of signs such as shadows, trees and rocks, which stand between vision
and sensorial perception, between the outside and inner worlds.

The simplification of forms and intense interplay of backlighting lead spectators to


focus their attention especially on the picture surface. In Under the Stars (19005), the
lovers embrace on a dark, starry night of floating shadows; and in Winter Night (1900
1) and The Red House in the Snow (192526), the trees appear to emerge from the
unconscious and the shadows create a sensation of concern and restlessness.
Vitalism:

Edvard Munch returned to Norway in 1909 after a long voluntary exile in France and
Germany. A nationalist and harmonious feeling and the wish to rethink his art gave rise
to a new creative period that led him to focus on more earthly subjects and produce
more heroic and vitalist works in a colourful and monumental style with new motifs
such as working the land, rural scenes and the seasons.

The Apple (1921), Adam and Eve (1909)


and Girls on the Pier (193335) are a good
example of this new creative side. Many
of these compositions feature the image
of the tree, robust specimens that express
vital force and symbolise the metabolic
chain of life; a perfect blend of the role of
the tree in Nordic mythology the Vikings
regarded it as the centre of the universe
Adam and Eve, 1909. Munch-museet, Oslo
and Christian tradition, in that it represents
both the world before the fall and temptation.

Nudes:

By converting his figures into personifications of passions and feelings, Munch uses the
human body to formulate these emotions and
many of the nude figures found in his paintings
thus bear little relation to the pictorial problem
of depicting the nude. However, in the works
with single figures, often based on studio
models, Munch plays with the optical and tactile
corporal qualities of the nude, giving priority to
the sensual and convulsive beauty of the body
over the emotions; this can be seen in Crying
Female Nude or Kneeling Female Nude.
Kneeling Female Nude, 1919. Sarah
Campbell Blaffer Foundation, Houston,
Towards the final decades of his career he also
Texas
developed an interest in the classical theme of
the artist and his model, which he painted in his studio at Ekerly, where he settled in
1916 after having lived in various cities. During his time at Ekerly, which became a
place for experimenting and reflecting on the aspirations of his art during those final
years, Munch attained his artistic and personal maturity and painted with greater
freedom and energy than ever.
DETAILS OF THE EXHIBITION

Title: Edvard Munch. Archetypes


Organised by: Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, with the generous collaboration of the
Munch-Museet of Oslo
Dates: From 6 October 2015 to 17 January 2016
Curators: Paloma Alarc, chief curator of modern painting at the Museum and Jon-Ove
Steihaug, director of collections and exhibitions at the Munch-Museet
Coordinator: Clara Marcelln, assistant curator of modern painting at the Museo
Thyssen-Bornemisza
Number of works: 80 (54 paintings and 26 engravings)
Publications: Catalogue with texts by Paloma Alarc, Patricia G. Berman and Jon-Ove
Steihaug (published in Spanish and English); Travelogue: Noruega y Edvard Munch
(Authors Paloma Alarc and Clara Marcelln. Published in Spanish); Guide; and Digital
publication in the Quiosco Thyssen free app for tablets and smartphones, in Spanish
and English.

SIDE EVENTS: Cycle of films, plays and art conferences

PRACTICAL INFORMATION:

Address: Paseo del Prado 8. 28014, Madrid.


Opening hours: Monday to Friday from 10am to 7pm; Saturdays from 10am to 9pm.
Last entry one hour before closing.
Admission charges:
Temporary exhibition:
- General: 11
- Reduced: 7 for over 65s, pensioners, students with valid ID and large families.
Temporary exhibition + Permanent Collection:
- General: 17
- Reduced: 9
Combined
Edvard Munch + Vogue Like a Painting
- General: 13
- Reduced: 8
Edvard Munch. Archetypes + The Illusion of the American Frontier
- General: 14
- Reduced: 9
Free admission: Children under 12 and people officially unemployed.

Advance ticket sales at the ticket offices, on the Museums website and by calling 902
760 511.
Audio-guides, available in several languages.
More information: www.museothyssen.org

INFORMATION FOR THE PRESS:


http://www.museothyssen.org/microsites/prensa/2015/Munch

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