As a prominent expressionist artist coming from Norway in the early 20th century, Edvard Munch (1863-1944) painted in a post-impressionistic style, with intense colors and an early abstracted technique. SF MoMA is featuring an incredible show of works by the prolific artist who’s tone and palette mimic the fervently changing period in which he worked. His famous painting, “The Scream,” you are probably familiar with, but it is likely that you are not familiar with much of his other work, so I urge you to learn.
This exhibit is running through October 9th and is set up on the fourth floor of the museum. It is arranged by subjects Munch faced in his life, the underlying causes of his unnerving psychological state, dealing with themes such as sickness, loss, and love, and featuring works with titles such as “Despair”. The first gallery upon entering the exhibit is a room of self portraits, paintings showing a man who was pained and melancholy, and was acutely aware of the passing of time. The exhibit gets its name from his early 1940’s self-portrait titled “Between the Clock and the Bed”. It was the last self-portrait of significance that he painted before his death, and the exhibit shows his work retrospectively since then. The clock alongside his figure in the paintings has no hands, rendering a sense of timelessness, but also induces an anxiety about the lack of time and human mortality, as he stands in a bedroom surrounded by his own artwork, as a form of autobiography. At the time he painted this portrait, he was making future arrangements for his artwork after his passing, so death was on his mind. This is the piece that really sets the tone for the whole exhibit.
One of the piece statements in the exhibit, for “Night in Saint-Cloud,” (1890) declared that Munch wanted to portray “living people who breathe and feel and suffer and love,” and this can be seen in any of his paintings. His work is raw and exceptionally human. There is emotion in every brushstroke, as these paintings were mostly personal in nature, including multiple paintings of his dying sister. Even the ones that don’t feature a prominent figure emit a broad spectrum of intense human emotions that is hard to ignore. His lighter subjects, like love, still seem to have a sadness to them, or possibly insanity, or fear. His rendering of “The Kiss” (1897) features two lovers whose faces have melted together in their passionate embrace, a physiologically unnerving way to depict such a tender topic. He mastered the art of portraying emotion through gestural brushwork and a fauvist palate, so that you feel something when looking at his work. You aren’t required to feel the same emotions as he did, but I promise you will feel something.
Munch was a prolific artist who let his emotions seep into every canvas he worked on. As one of the most influential painters in German Expressionism, his vulnerability and suffering can be felt by any who see his works. The experience is almost visceral, and his works will change you, even, or perhaps especially, if the idea of vulnerability or internal human suffering scares you.
Muse & Musée 