EDVARD MUNCH (1863 - 1944) After studies in Norway, Edvard Munch spent several years in France and Germany. From his time in France his work was influenced by the Nabis and the Post-Impressionists, particularly Gauguin, van Gogh, and Toulouse-Lautrec. Simultaneously he developed a distinct "private" symbolism, based on his own traumatic experiences. In Berlin during the 1890s he executed a series of pictures called The Frieze of Life, described by himself as "a poem of life, love and death". The Scream from this series - with its strong expression of conflict and tension - has become the very symbol of the alienation of modern man. With his emphasis on mental anguish and his distortion of colours and form, Munch is regarded - together with van Gogh - as the main source of German Expressionism. In 1908 Munch suffered a nervous breakdown, and the following year he returned to Norway where he spent the rest of his life. His palette became brighter and his motifs changed, but his art still reflects in a vigorous way the same existential problems of his earlier days, mirroring his own life into old age. THE SCREAM, 1893 The Scream has come more and more to be accepted as Edvard Munch´s most significant motif - the very symbol of modern man, for whom God is dead and for whom materialism provides no solace. Munch wrote several versions of a prose-lyrical associated with the motif, one of which reads: I was walking along a path with two friends - the sun was setting - suddenly the sky turned blood red - I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence - there was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city - my friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety - and I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature. The Scream in the Munch Museum is one of two painted versions of the image. The other is to be found in the National Gallery, Oslo. The National Gallery version is signed and dated 1893, and many scholars believe this to be the first one. Both versions are painted on cardboard, and Munch has also sketched the image on the reverse side of the National Gallery version. The Scream - one of the two versions - was first exhibited at Unter den Linden in Berlin in December 1893. In 1895 an important version of the image was produced as a lithograph. There exist two pastels of the image, one belonging to the Munch Museum, the other privately owned. There are also a few sketches related to The Scream on a sheet of paper in the Munch Museum collection. The Munch Museum opened in 1963 and was purpose-built to house this unique collection of approximately 1.100 paintings, 4.500 drawings and 18.000 prints. Major works will always be on display in the museum. The selection is changed regularly. The museum´s programme also comprises film screenings, audioguides, concerts, guided tours and lectures. Edvard Munch´s art is the most significant Norwegian contribution to the history of art, and he is the only Norwegian artist who has exercised a decisive influence on European art trends, above all as a pioneer of Expressionism in Germany and the Nordic countries. When Munch died in January 1944, it transpired that he had unconditionally bequeathed all his remaining works to the City of Oslo. MADONNA, 1893-94 The aura-like lines around the model in this main motif from The Frieze of Life which ripple in a soft and suggestive rhythm, the half-closed and deep-set eyes allow us to sense the ecstasy of conception, the pinnacle of love but also an underlying pain. The red colour of the halo has the associations with both love and blood. The Munch Museum Madonna is painted on canvas. There are four additional painted versions of the image. The National Gallery in Oslo and the Hamburger Kunsthalle each have one, while two are in private collections. The Munch Museum Madonna is dated 1893-94. In 1895 Munch made a lithographic version of Madonna, with a decorative frame depicting spermatozoa and an embryo. Several poetic texts related to Madonna underscore the intimate relationship between love and death: ... Now life is shaking hands with death The chain that binds together the thousand generations of dead with the thousand generations yet to be born has been tied... The Scream and Madonna are both central in a cycle of images Munch called The Frieze of Life, which he described as "a poem about life, love and death". Access All eastbound metro trains from the city to Tøyen station. Bus no. 20 to the Munch Museum. Good parking facilities by the museum.