Edvard Munch Archetypes
Edvard Munch Archetypes
Edvard Munch Archetypes
Archetypes
From 6 October 2015 to 17 January 2016
Curators: Paloma Alarc and Jon-Ove Steihaug
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.
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.
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.
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 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:
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.
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).
(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.
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.
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
PRACTICAL INFORMATION:
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