Edvard Munch - “The Scream” 1893
Happy Halloween!
In the spirit of Halloween this is a creepy looking painting called “The Scream”. It is painted by Edvard Munch, a Norwegian artist with Oil on canvas. From a young age Munch had witnessed traumatic events, his mother dying of tuberculosis when Munch was just 5 years old. Later his father died while he was still just a teenager. These traumatic events caused him to suffer from depression and anxiety all his life. Edvard Munch is often associated with the expressionist movement which focuses on portraying raw, emotional experiences rather than the reality of things. The painting is a brilliant work on colors. The main focus of the painting is on a figure with his mouth agape and his hands on either side of his head. The figure seems to be in a state of distress, feeling, and anxiety. The feeling of fear is evident in the painting but quite contrastingly the background of the painting is colorful and in movement. The rolling red sky and the flowing lake with a ship slowly sailing toward the bridge the scene is serene and moving. The peacefulness is so vastly different from the anxious terrified figure. Going further into Edvard Munch’s person, he was always suffering from anxiety and sometimes these feelings crashed down on the artist. I personally suggest this painting as a depiction of a panic attack the artist felt in the past. The painting seems like a foggy memory. During a panic attack my people would have a feeling of doom and their brain would not function correctly. Everything around them is ringing, things are moving around them but for them they are still unable to control their own mind and body from the movement and spinning of the world around them. People are walking past and away from the figure everything is moving on with life, the world would never stop for someone, even at their lowest.
The painting is truly a compositional genius, the flow of the sky leads our eyes to the flow of the river and then to the figure, afterwards it leads our eyes to the two figures walking away in the depths of the bridge. Some say the two figures are Edvard Munch’s friends walking and moving on leaving him to handle himself. It also symbolizes a sense of detachment from society, they are moving away but even at their closeness they are just black figures disturbed and blank. The painting is still well known to this day, still resonating with viewers around the world. Have you ever felt this sense of anxiety as the world moves on without you, would you say you can reflect and respond to this painting with personal experiences?
Edvard Munch - “The Scream” 1893 (91 cm × 73.5 cm (36 in × 28.9 in)
