The Norwegian artist Edvard Munch is regarded as a pioneer
in the Expressionist movement in modern painting. At an early stage Munch was
recognized in Germany and central Europe as one of the creators of a new epoch.
His star is still on the ascendant in the other European countries, and in the
rest of the world. Munch's art from the 1890s is the most well known, but his
later work is steadily attracting greater attention, and it appears to inspire
present-day artists in particular.
By Frank Høifødt
Edvard Munch grew up in Norway's capital, Oslo, then called
Christiania. His father, Christian Munch - brother of the well-known historian
P.A. Munch - was a deeply religious military doctor earning a modest income. His
wife, who was 20 years his junior, died of tuberculosis when Edvard was only
five years old, and Edvard's older sister, Sophie, died of the disease at the
age of 15. Edvard himself was often ill. A younger sister was diagnosed with
mental illness at an early age. Of the five siblings only one, Andreas, ever
married, only to die a few months after the wedding.
His childhood home was culturally stimulating, but in his art
Munch turned again and again to the memory of illness, death and grief.
Realism
After a year at Technical School, Munch became dedicated to
art. He studied the old masters, attended courses in the painting of nudes at
the Royal School of Drawing and was instructed for a time by Norway's leading
artist, Christian Krohg. His early works were influenced by French-inspired
Realism, and his great talent was soon discovered.
In 1885 Munch went on a short study tour to Paris. That year
he started on the work that was to be his breakthrough, "The Sick Child",
in which he makes a radical break with the realistic approach seen in a similar
motif by Christian Krohg. Munch's picture was about his sister Sophie. He
struggled with the motif a long time, searching for "the first impression"
and a valid painterly expression for a painful, personal experience. He had
renounced perspective and plastic form, and had attained a composition formula
reminiscent of icons. The course texture of the surface displayed all the signs
of a laborious creative process. The criticism was very negative.
His main works from subsequent years are less provocative in
their form. "Inger on the Beach" from 1889 shows Munch's ability to
portray a lyrical atmosphere, in keeping with the new romantic trend of that
time. The picture is painted in Åsgårdstrand, a small coastal town
near Horten. It is this region's characteristic coastline we find used as a
meaningful "leitmotif" in so many of Munch's compositions.
Kristiania bohemian
In 1889 he painted a portrait of the leader of the Kristiania
(as Christiania was now spelled) bohemians, Hans Jæger. Munch's
association with Jæger and his circle of radical anarchists became a
crucial turning point in his life and a source of new inner unrest and conflict.
At that time Munch commenced an extensive biographical literary production which
he resumed at different periods in his life. These early writings serve as a
reference for several of the central motifs of the 'nineties. In keeping with Jæger's
ideas he wanted to present truthful close-ups of the modern individual's
longings and agonies - he wanted to paint his own life.
The years in France
In the autumn of 1889 Munch held a large separate exhibition in
Kristiania, and was thereafter awarded a state travel grant for three
consecutive years. Naturally, he went to Paris, where for a short time he was a
pupil of Léon Bonnat, but he became more inspired by acquainting himself
with the city's art life. At that time a Post-Impressionistbreakthrough was in
progress along with different anti-naturalist experiments. This had a liberating
effect on Munch. "The camera cannot compete with a brush and canvas,"
he wrote, "as long as it can't be used in heaven and hell."
The first autumn, shortly after Munch arrived in France, he
was informed that his father had died. The loneliness and melancholy in the
painting "Night" (1890) are often seen with this in mind. The dark
interior with the lonely figure at the window is completely dominated by tones
of blue - a painting of nuances which may be reminiscent of James McNeill
Whistler's nocturnal colour harmonies. This modern and independent work is also
an expression of the "decadence" in the final decade of the century.
At the Autumn Exhibition in Kristiania in 1891 Munch showed
among other works "Melancholy". Great curved lines and more
homogeneous colour surfaces dominate here; there is a simplifying and
formalizing of the motif similar to that found in French Synthetism. "Symbolism
- nature is formed by one's state of mind," wrote Munch.
At this time Munch did the first sketches of the well-known "The
Scream". He also painted several pictures in an Impressionist style verging
on pointillism, with motifs from the Seine and from Kristiania's promenade, Karl
Johan. However, it is the impressions of the soul, and not the eye, that are
Munch's main interest.
"The Scream" is often described as the first
expressionistic picture, and is the most extreme example of Munch's "soul
paintings". The facial expression depends to a large degree on the
painting's dynamics, the colours and lines. The scene - and particularly the
foreground figure - are grotesquely distorted and rendered in colours that are
not taken from external reality. Coming as it does from Munch's own "inner
hell", the painting visualizes a desperate aspect of fin-de-siècle:
anxiety and apocalypse. The percussiveness of the motif shows that it also
speaks to our day and age.
Berlin
In the autumn of 1892 Munch gave a broad presentation of his
art, in which he included the fruits of his sojourn in France. This exhibition
resulted in Munch being invited to show the same paintings to the Artist's
Association of Berlin. It was a formidable "succès de scandale".
The general public and the older painters interpreted Munch's art as anarchistic
provocation, and the exhibition was closed in protest.
Because of that, Munch had made a name for himself in Berlin
and he decided to stay there. He entered a circle of literati, artists and
intellectuals, including a strong element of Scandinavians. The circle numbered
among others the Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland, the Danish writer Holger
Drachman, the Polish poet Stanislaw Przybyszewski and the German art historian
Julius Meier-Graefe. Of most importance to Munch was the meeting with Swedish
dramatist August Strindberg. They discussed the philosophy of Nietzsche,
occultism, psychology and the dark sides of sexuality.
In December 1893 Munch had an exhibition at Unter den Linden
where he showed, among other things, six paintings entitled "Study for a
Series: Love". This was the beginning of a cycle he would later call the "Frieze
of Life - A Poem about Life, Love and Death". It includes motifs that are
steeped in atmosphere such as "The Storm", "Moonlight" and "Starry
Night", where one dimly perceives the influence of Arnold Böcklin.
Other motifs illuminate the nocturnal side of love, such as "Rose and
Amelie" and "Vampire". Several pictures have death as a theme: "Death
in the Sickroom" (1893) created quite a stir. In this composition Munch's
debt to the French Synthetists and Symbolists is obvious. Painted in garish and
pallid colours, the picture shows a scene frozen fast like the tragic final
tableau in a drama. The motif is based on the memory of his sister Sophie's
death, and the whole family is represented. The dramatic focus in the picture is
on the figure who represents Munch himself. The following year the "Frieze
of Life" was enlarged by motifs such as "Anxiety", "Ashes",
"Madonna" and "Women in Three Stages", the latter a
monumental motif completely in keeping with the spirit of Symbolism.
Together with Meier-Graefe and others, Przybyszewski published
in 1894 the first publication about Munch's art, which he characterizes as "psychological
realism".
Back to Berlin
In the spring of 1896 Munch left Berlin and settled down in
Paris, where his associates again included Strindberg. He was now devoting
greater attention to the graphic medium, at the expense of painting. In Berlin
he had begun etching and lithography; he was now making exquisite colour
lithographs and his first woodcuts in partnership with the famous printer
Auguste Clot. Munch had also plans for publishing a portfolio titled "The
Mirror", a graphic version of the "Frieze of Life". Today Munch
is regarded as one the classics in graphic arts, owing to his unique command of
the medium and his great artistic originality.
In Paris he made the programme posters for two Ibsen
productions at the Théâtre de L'Oeuvre, while a commission to
illustrate Baudelaire's "Les Fleurs du Mal" got no further than the
initial phase.
Back in Norway in 1898, he drew the illustrations for a
special issue of the German periodical "Quickborn", which was written
by Strindberg.
Turn of the century
Around the turn of the century Munch tried to finish the
Frieze. He painted a number of pictures, several of them in larger format and to
some extent featuring the art nouveau aesthetics of the time. He made a wooden
frame with carved reliefs for the large painting "Metabolism" (1898).
Initially called "Adam and Eve", the work reveals the central place
the fall of man myth has in Munch's pessimistic philosophy of love. Motifs such
as "The Empty Cross" and "Golgota" (both c. 1900) reflect a
metaphysical orientation to the times, and also echo Munch's pietistic
upbringing.
The turbulent love affair he had at this time strengthened
Munch's view of art as a calling.
The turn of the century was a phase of restless
experimentation. A more colourful and decorative style manifests itself,
influenced by the art of the Nabis, particularly Maurice Denis. As early as 1899
Munch painted "The Dance of Life", which can be interpreted as a
daring and personal monumentalization of this decorative flat style.
A series of landscape paintings from the Kristiania fjord,
decorative and sensitive studies of nature, are regarded as highlights in Nordic
symbolism. The classic and evocative "Girls on the Bridge" was painted
in Åsgårdstrand the summer of 1901.
Success and crisis
In the early years of the new century Munch was in the process
of firmly establishing his career. In 1902 he showed the entire Frieze for the
first time at the Secession exhibition in Berlin. An exhibition in Prague in
1905 had an impact on several Czech artists. Portraits, usually full-length,
gradually constituted an important part of his oeuvre. The group portrait of Dr.
Linde's sons (1904) is reckoned to be one of the masterpieces of modern
portraiture.
The Fauvists, led by Matisse, shared many of Munch's new
artistic approaches. The "Die Brücke" group in Dresden was
interested in Munch, but they did not succeed in getting him to show his
paintings at their exhibitions.
Artistic success was accompanied by personal conflicts.
Alcohol had become a problem, and Munch was emotionally unstable. He was plagued
by the memories of his tragic love affair, which had come to a dramatic end with
a revolver scene in Åsgårdstrand in the autumn of 1902, permanently
injuring a finger on Munch's left hand. He nevergot over the ignominy of this
incident, but during these years it became an obsession. The woman's features
can be seen in "Death of Marat" (two versions from 1907), a motif
which more generally can be said to portray "the battle called love between
men and women".
Henrik Ibsen died in May 1906, and in the autumn Munch made
the set designs for Max Reinhardt's production of "Ghosts" at the new
intimate stage at Deutsches Theater in Berlin. Ibsen assumed an increasingly
more important place in Munch's consciousness. "Self-portrait with Bottle
of Wine" from 1906 shows a powerless, hunched over figure sitting alone at
a table in a claustrophobic cafe interior - a tragic sight spiritually related
to Osvald in Ibsen's drama.
On commission Munch did a monumental fantasy portrait of
Freidrich Nietzsche, and during several visits in Weimar he also did a portrait
of the late philosopher's sister, Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche.
New motifs from this period show signs of a more extroverted
orientation. "Bathing Men" (1907-08) is a vigorous tribute to vital
manliness. However, his alcohol and mental problems reached a critical point,
and Munch decided to spend eight months at a clinic in Copenhagen. Norway
finally opened its eyes to his artistic talent, and he was awarded the Order of
St. Olav during his stay at the clinic.
Back in Norway
From 1909 and for the rest of his life Munch resided in Norway.
At first he settled down in Kragerø, a coastal town farther south. Here
he painted several classic winter landscapes and threw himself enthusiastically
into the competition for the decoration of the University of Kristiania's new
auditorium, the Aula.
In 1912, Munch was given a prominent place among pioneers of
modern art at the large Sonderbund exhibition in Cologne.
In Kragerø he built large outdoor studios where he
worked for several years on the designs for Aula. After prolonged controversy
Munch's designs were finally accepted and installed in the auditorium in 1916.
According to Munch himself, the motifs in the Aula celebrate
the "perpetual forces of life". The background motif shows a sunrise
over the fjord, based on the view from the property Munch rented in Kragerø.
The explosive composition may also be viewed as a symbol of the boundless and
life-giving power of light. The large canvases "History" and "Alma
Mater" hang like pendants in the Aula: an old man is sitting under a great
oak tree in a meagre and rugged landscape relating the saga of mankind to a
little boy, and in a gentle and verdant landscape a woman is sitting on a
seashore with a child at her breast, while bigger children are exploring the
surroundings. Besides alluding to the humanities and sciences, the two "archetypal"
motifs are expressions of a male and female principle, a central opposition in
Munch's visual world.
Munch showed an interest in the growing Labour Movement in
several motifs from this time, some of them monumental in character. "Workers
on Their Way Home" (1913-15) is also a dynamic study of perspective and
movement.
In 1916 Munch purchased the property Ekely outside Kristiania
(renamed Oslo in 1924). Landscapes, people in harmony with nature, horses and
ploughing --these were the motifs which were now portrayed in strong, clear
colours. Through fresh and spontaneous brushwork he conveys a rough and sensuous
tribute to sun, air and the earth.
At Ekely Munch lived to a steadily greater degree in
self-chosen isolation, spartan, surrounded only by his pictures. He was
constantly productive, but parted only reluctantly with "his children".
Arrangements were made to lend the pictures to a number of international
exhibitions.
In his later years Munch painted a number of studies and
compositions using a model. Some of these have a vigorous and life-embracing
quality, while in others he continued to explore the conflict-filled themes of
the 1890s. He continued to produce a considerable number of graphics, including
a number of lithographic portraits.
Before Munch died in January 1944, he had willed his large
collection of pictures and uncatalogued biographical and literary notes to the
City of Oslo. Consequently, the Munch Museum, dedicated in 1963, has a unique
collection of Munch's art and other material which illuminates all phases of the
artistic process.
The National Gallery in Oslo also has an exquisite Munch
collection particularly rich in main, early paintings. Major works are also
found in the Bergen Art Gallery.
The author of the article, Dr. Frank Høifødt,
born in 1951, had worked for many years at the Munch Museum when he earned his
doctorate in 1995 with a thesis on Munch's life and art anno 1900.
Produced by Nytt fra Norge for the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs. The author is responsible for the contents of the article.
Reproduction permitted. Printed in June 1996.
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