Edvard Munch Biography, Art, and Analysis of Works | The Art Story Web Services & Hosting by The Computer Studio | Designed by DesArtLab Impressionism Impressionism A movement in painting that first surfaced in France in the 1860s, it sought new ways to describe effects of light and movement, often using rich colors. The Impressionists were drawn to modern life and often painted the city, but they also captured landscapes and scenes of middle-class leisure-taking in the suburbs. Paul Gauguin Paul Gauguin Paul Gauguin was a French Post-Impressionist artist who employed color fields and painterly strokes in his work. He is best known for his primitivist depictions of native life in Tahiti and Polynesia. Expressionism Expressionism Expressionism is a broad term for a host of movements in early twentieth-century Germany and beyond, from Die Brücke (1905) and Der Blaue Reiter (1911) to the early Neue Sachlichkeit painters in the 1920s and '30s.

Many Expressionists used vivid colors and abstracted forms to create spiritually or psychologically intense works, while others focused on depictions of war, alienation, and the modern city. Symbolism Symbolism Symbolism is an artistic and literary movement that first emerged in France in the 1880s. In the visual arts it is often considered part of Post-Impressionism. It is characterized by an emphasis on the mystical, romantic and expressive, and often by the use of symbolic figures. Art Nouveau Art Nouveau Art Nouveau was a movement that swept through the decorative arts and architecture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Generating enthusiasts throughout Europe, it was aimed at modernizing design and escaping the eclectic historical styles that had previously been popular. It drew inspiration from both organic and geometric forms, evolving elegant designs that united flowing, natural forms with more angular contours. Vincent van Gogh Vincent van Gogh Vincent van Gogh was a Dutch painter, commonly associated with the Post-Impressionist period. As one of the most prolific and experimental artists of his time, van Gogh was a spontaneous painter and a master of color and perspective.

Troubled by personal demons all his life, many historians speculate that van Gogh suffered from a Bipolar disorder. Edouard Manet Edouard Manet Edouard Manet was a French painter and a prominent figure in the mid-nineteenth-century Realist movement of French art. Manet's paintings are considered among the first works of art in the modern era, due to his rough painting style and absence of idealism in his figures. Manet was a close friend of and major influence on younger artists who founded Impressionism such as Claude Monet, Edgar Degas and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Post-Impressionism Post-Impressionism Post-Impressionism refers to a number of styles that emerged in reaction to Impressionism in the 1880s. The movement encompassed Symbolism and Neo-Impressionism before ceding to Fauvism around 1905. Its artists turned away from effects of light and atmosphere to explore new avenues such as color theory and personal feeling, often using colors and forms in intense and expressive ways.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was a Post-Impressionist artist who depicted the dancers, prostitutes, drinkers, and other characters of fin-de-siecle Paris. He is known for his paintings, his caricatures of friends, and his well-designed posters for Parisian dance halls. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was one of the driving forces in the Die Brücke group that flourished in Dresden and Berlin before WWI, and one of the most talented and influential of the Expressionists. Wassily Kandinsky Wassily Kandinsky A member of the German Expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter, and later a teacher at the Bauhaus, Kandinsky is best known for his pioneering breakthrough into expressive abstraction in 1913. His work prefigures that of the American Abstract Expressionists. Max Beckmann Max Beckmann Max Beckmann was a German artist, writer, and philosopher commonly associated with the Expressionist movement of the early twentieth century. He abhorred the label 'Expressionism', but juxtaposed scenes from reality by layering figures, colors, and shadows.

Fauvism Fauvism Fauvism was an early twentieth-century art movement founded by Henri Matisse and André Derain. Labeled as "wild beasts", Fauve artists favored vibrant colors and winding gestural strokes across the canvas. Surrealism Surrealism Perhaps the most influential avant-garde movement of the century, Surrealism was founded in Paris in 1924 by a small group of writers and artists who sought to channel the unconscious as a means to unlock the power of the imagination. Much influenced by Freud, they believed that the conscious mind repressed the power of the imagination. Influenced also by Marx, they hoped that the psyche had the power to reveal the contradictions in the everyday world and spur on revolution. Francis Bacon Francis Bacon Francis Bacon was an Irish-born, English painter and one of the twentieth century's most celebrated and controversial existentialist artists. Bacon favored dark subject matter, often painting slightly abstracted, biomorphic figures, with bodies contorted or in the throes of madness. Painterly themes of Bacon's include the crucifixion, isolation and the mind's fragility.

Bacon was also one of the few English artists of any prominence in modern and contemporary circles during the better part of the twentieth century. Georges Seurat Georges Seurat Georges-Pierre Seurat was a French painter who gave rise to the Post- and Neo-Impressionist artistic styles of the late nineteenth century. Seurat's greatest contribution to modern art was his development of Pointillism, a style of painting in which small dots of paint were applied to create a cohesive image. Combining the science of optics with painterly emotion, Pointillism evoked a visual harmony never before seen in modern art. Hans Jaeger Hans Jaeger Hans Jaeger was a Norwegian writer, philosopher, and anarchist who was also a member of the bohemian group, Kristianiabohêmen. Already sent to prison because of his book, Fra Kristiania-bohemen, Jaeger was forced to flee Norway after trying to circulate copies of it in Sweden. The writer was a friend of the artist Edward Munch, and the subject of one of his paintings. Christian Krohg Christian Krohg Christian Krohg was a Norwegian painter, illustrator, author, and journalist. A naturalist painter, Krohg preferred to depict scenes from everyday life.

He particularly liked to portray darker scenes, with his favorite subject being prostitutes. Additionally, he wrote about prostitutes in his book, Albertine, which scandalized his society and was confiscated by the police. Franz Marc Franz Marc Franz Marc was a German painter and printmaker, and one of the pioneers of German Expressionism. Along with August Macke and Kandinksy, Marc founded The Blue Rider artist group. A student of Futurism and Cubism, Marc was a master of color and depth, and a major influence on mid-twentieth-century abstractionists. Naturalism Naturalism As a distinct artistic medium, Naturalism began as far back as the Florentine School, with artists such as Botticelli and Michelangelo, and still survives to the present day. The term is meant to be self-explanatory, referring to the artist's depiction of realistic objects and settings, and their naturalistic movement. A common theme in naturalist paintings is nature's predominance over humankind. Pointillism Pointillism Pointillism is a mode of art-making, first developed in 1880s France, in which all of the paint is applied to the surface as tiny points or daubs of color.

Based on the laws of color theory, pointillism relies on the viewer's eye to mix the disparate dots into the lines, shapes, shadings, and color ranges of the full scene. Paul Klee Paul Klee The Swiss-born painter Paul Klee worked in a variety of styles, including Expressionism, geometric abstraction, and collage. His most famous works have a mystical quality and make use of linear and pictorial symbols. Henri Matisse Henri Matisse Henri Matisse was a French painter and sculptor who helped forge modern art. From his early Fauvist works to his late cutouts, he emphasized expansive fields of color, the expressive potential of gesture, and the sensuality inherent in art-making. August Strindberg August Strindberg August Strindberg was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist, and painter who is considered the "father" of modern Swedish literature; his novel, The Red Room, the prototype for the modern Swedish novel. Strindberg brought Naturalism to the theater with his plays: The Father, Miss Julie, and Creditors. He had a prolific career and influenced many artists including Tennessee Williams, Ingmar Bergman, and Eugene O'Neill.

Max Linde Max Linde Max Linde was an ophthalmologist who was best-known for being a great art collector of the early twentieth century. Linde was a patron to many artists, and of particular importance to Edward Munch. Robert Rosenblum Robert Rosenblum Robert Rosenblum was an American art critic, curator and historian. His greatest contribution to the modern canon was his redefinition of Modern art history, offering that the era began not with Impressionism but with Neo-Classicists of the late eighteenth century. Biography of Edvard Munch (1863-1944) Father of Expressionism 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 ï¿½ brother of the well-known historian P.A. Munch ï¿½ 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 ï¿½ 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-Impressionist breakthrough 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 ï¿½ 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 ï¿½ 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 ï¿½ and particularly the foreground figure ï¿½ 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 ï¿½ 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 ï¿½ 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 ï¿½ 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. From the Internet site, "ODIN," produced for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by Nytt fra Norge. Textual reproduction permitted. A link to that site is provided at the bottom of the Great Norwegians Homepage. To return to the Edvard Munch Linkpage, click below: To return to the Great Norwegians Homepage, click below: Edvard Munch - Paintings,Biography,Quotes of Edvard Munch Edvard Munch of Edvard Munch Edvard Munch and his Paintings Edvard Munch is best known as being a Norwegian born, expressionist painter, and printer. In the late 20th century, he played a great role in German expressionism, and the art form that later followed; namely because of the strong mental anguish that was displayed in many of the pieces that he created. Edvard Munch was born in Norway in 1863, and was raised in Christiania (known as Oslo today).

He was related to famous painters and artists in their own right, Jacob Munch (painter), and Peter Munch (historian). Only a few years after he was born, Edvard Munch's mother died of tuberculosis in 1868, and he was raised by his father. Edvard's father suffered of mental illness, and this played a role in the way he and his siblings were raised. Their father raised them with the fears of deep seated issues, which is part of the reason why the work of Edvard Munch took a deeper tone, and why the artist was known to have so many repressed emotions as he grew up. In 1885, Edvard Munch traveled to Paris, and was extremely influenced by impressionism artists Claude Monet , Edouard Manet , and followed by the post-impressionism artists Van Gogh , Paul Cezanne , and Gauguin . In fact, the main style of Munch's work is post-impressionism , and focused on this style.

From about 1892, to 1908, Munch split most of his time between Paris and Berlin; it was in 1909 that he decided to return to his hometown, and go back to Norway. During this period, much of the work that was created by Edvard Munch depicted his interest in nature, and it was also noted that the tones and colors that he used in these pieces, did add more color, and seemed a bit more cheerful, than most of the previous works he had created in years past. The pessimistic under toning which was quite prominent in much of his earlier works, had faded quite a bit, and it seems he took more of a colorful, playful, and fun tone with the pieces that he was creating, as opposed to the dark and somber style which he tended to work with earlier on during the course of his career. From this period, up to his death, Edvard Munch remained in Norway, and much of his work that was created from this period on, seemed to take on the similar, colorful approach which he had adopted, since returning home in 1909.

A majority of the works which Edvard Munch created, were referred to as the style known as symbolism. This is mainly because of the fact that the the paintings he made focused on the internal view of the objects, as opposed to the exterior, and what the eye could see. Symbolist painters believed that art should reflect an emotion or idea rather than represent the natural world in the objective, quasi-scientific manner embodied by Realism and Impressionism. In painting, Symbolism represents a synthesis of form and feeling, of reality and the artist's inner subjectivity. Many of Munch's works depict life and death scenes, love and terror, and the feeling of loneliness was often a feeling which viewers would note that his work patterns focused on. These emotions were depicted by the contrasting lines, the darker colors, blocks of color, somber tones, and a concise and exaggerated form, which depicted the darker side of the art which he was designing. Munch is often and rightly compared with Van Gogh, who was one of the first artists to paint what the French artist called "the mysterious centers of the mind." But perhaps a more overreaching influence was Sigmund Freud , a very close contemporary.

Freud explained much human behavior by relating it to childhood experiences. Munch saw his mother die of tuberculosis when he was 5, and his sister Sophie die of the same disease when he was 14. Munch gives the By the Death Bed and Death in the Sickroom a universal cast by not specifically depicting what he had witnessed. Several versions of The Sick Child are surely his sister. Nature is not only all that is visible to the eye... it also includes the inner pictures of the soul.”- Edvard Munch Edvard Munch passed away in 1944, in a small town which was just outside of his home town in Oslo. Upon his death, the works which he had created, were not given to family, but they were instead donated to the Norwegian government, and were placed in museums, in shows, and in various local public buildings in Norway. In fact, after his death, more than 1000 paintings which Edvard Munch had created were donated to the government. In addition to the paintings that he had created during the course of his career, all other art forms he created were also donated to the government.

A total of 15,400 prints were donated, 4500 drawings and water color art was donated, and six sculptures which Edvard Munch had created, were all turned over to the Oslo government, and were used as display pieces in many locations. Due to the fact that all of this work which Edvard Munch had created, was donated to the Norwegian government, the country decided to build the Munch Museum of Art . This was done to commemorate his work, his life, and the generosity which he showed, in passing his art work over to the government, so that it could be enjoyed by the general public, rather than be kept locked up by the family. Although the art which he did donate, was spread throughout a number of museums and art exhibits, a majority of them were kept in Oslo. And, most of the works which were donated by Munch, were placed in the Munch Museum of Art, to commemorate the work he did, as well as the unique style, and the distinct movements which he introduced to the world, through the creations which he had crafted.

MOST POPULAR PAINTINGS Edvard Munch - 80 Artworks, Bio & Shows on Artsy Edvard Munch Overview Works CV Articles Shows Auction Results Related Artists Biography A recognized forerunner of Expressionism , Norwegian painter and printmaker Edvard Munch is renowned for his representations of emotion. Associated with the international development of Symbolism , Munch experimented with many different themes, palettes, and styles of drawing. Though stylistically influenced by Paul Gauguin and the Nabis , Munch’s subjects are drawn from his Scandinavian roots and his own tortured psyche. His most famous painting, The Scream (1893), illustrates a tormented cry translated into waves of color that resonate across the landscape. Though based on Munch’s own experience, The Scream has become an instantly recognizable symbol of anxiety and alienation. Often reworking his paintings into etchings and lithographs, Munch was also one of the major graphic artists of the 20th century—he took an experimental approach to printmaking and contributed to the revival of the woodcut.

Norwegian, 1863–1944, Løten, Norway, based in Oslo, Norway Edvard Munch Biography - life, childhood, death, wife, school, mother, son, information, born, time, scandal Edvard Munch Biography Oslo, Norway Norwegian painter and artist The Norwegian painter and graphic artist Edvard Munch illustrated man's emotional life in love and death. His art was a major influence of the expressionist movement, in which where artists sought to give rise to emotional responses. Early life Born on December 12, 1863, in Loieten, near Kristiania (now Oslo), Norway, Edvard Munch was the son of a military doctor. Childhood experiences with death and sickness—both his mother and sister died of tuberculosis (an often-fatal disease that attacks the lungs and bones)—greatly influenced his emotional and intellectual development. This and his father's fanatic Christianity led Munch to view his life as dominated by the "twin black angels of insanity and disease." After studying engineering, Munch soon turned to art.

In 1880 Munch began to study art and joined the realist painters (school of painters who sought to depict their subjects as realistically as possible) and writers of the Kristiania bohemian (fashionable and unconventional) circle. His ideas were strongly influenced at this time by the writer Hans Jaeger (1854–1910), who sought to establish an ideal society based on materialist atheism (not believing in material wealth) and free love. Jaeger's hopeless love affair with the wife of Christian Krohg, leader of the bohemian painters, and Munch's own brief affairs caused him to intensify the connection he saw between women, love, and death. Munch's paintings during the 1880s were dominated by his desire to use the artistic vocabulary of realism to create subjective content, or content open to interpretation of the viewer. His Sick Child (1885–1886), which used a motif (dominant theme) popular among Norwegian realist artists, created through color a mood of depression that served as a memorial to his dead sister.

Because of universal critical rejection, Munch turned briefly to a more mainstream style, and through the large painting Spring (1889), a more academic version of the Sick Child, he obtained state support for study in France. A change After studying briefly at a Parisian art school, Munch began to explore the possibilities made available by the French postimpressionists, a movement that looked to push impressionism beyond its limitations. The death of his father in 1889 caused a major spiritual crisis, and he soon rejected Jaeger's philosophy. Munch's Night in St. Cloud (1890) embodied a renewed interest in spiritual content; this painting served as a memorial to his father by presenting the artist's dejected state of mind. He summarized his intentions, saying "I paint not what I see, but what I saw," and identified his paintings as "symbolism: nature Edvard Munch. Reproduced by permission of the Corbis Corporation . viewed through a temperament" (manner of thinking). Both statements accent the transformation of nature as the artist experienced it.

In 1892 the Berlin Artists' Association, an official organization consisting primarily of German academic artists, invited Munch to exhibit in Berlin, Germany. His paintings created a major scandal in Germany's artistic capital, and the exhibition was closed. But Munch used the publicity to arrange other exhibitions and sell paintings; his art prospered and he decided to stay in Germany. He also began work on a series of paintings later entitled the Frieze of Life, which concentrated on the themes of love, anxiety, and death. To make his work accessible to a larger public, Munch began making prints (works of art that could be easily copied) in 1894. Motifs for his prints were usually derived from his paintings, particularly the Frieze. The Frieze also served as the inspiration for the paintings he made for Max Linde (1904), Max Reinhardt's Kammerspielhaus (1907), and the Freia Chocolate Factory in Oslo (1922). Later years Following a nervous breakdown, Munch entered a hospital in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1908.

In the lithograph (a type of print) series Alpha and Omega he depicted his love affairs and his relationship to friends and enemies. In 1909 he returned to Norway to lead an isolated life. He sought new artistic motifs in the Norwegian landscape and in the activities of farmers and laborers. A more optimistic view of life briefly replaced his former anxiety, and this new life view attained monumental expression in the murals of the Oslo University Aula (1911–1914). During World War I (1914–18), when Germany led forces against the forces of much of Europe and the United States, Munch returned to his earlier motifs of love and death. Symbolic paintings and prints appeared side by side with stylized studies of landscapes and nudes during the 1920s. As a major project, never completed, he began to illustrate Henrik Ibsen's (1828–1906) plays. During his last years, plagued by partial blindness, Munch edited the diaries written in his youth and painted harsh self-portraits and memories of his earlier life. He died in Ekely outside Oslo on January 23, 1944.

For More Information Munch by Steffen Kverneland review – a scrapbook drawn from life | Books | The Guardian Munch by Steffen Kverneland review – a scrapbook drawn from life The Norwegian graphic novelist’s biography of artist Edvard Munch is a digressive delight Steffen Kverneland makes Munch look ‘just like Dick Dastardly’. Photograph: SelfMadeHero Share on Messenger Close Steffen Kverneland’s graphic biography of Edvard Munch (translated into English by Francesca M Nichols) begins in 2005 at the museum devoted to the Norwegian artist in Tøyen, Oslo. Wandering its galleries with his friend and collaborator, Lars Fiske , the pair work themselves up into quite a frenzy. First, there’s the art, which is a total “acid trip”. Then there’s their frustration with the legions of “romanticising” biographers who purport to understand what made the artist tick: “Nothing but pathological lies, soap operas and masked copies of the sources,” according to Fiske. High on mutual indignation and the contents of Fiske’s hip flask, they devise a daring plan.

Kverneland will write a biography whose text comprises only “authentic” first-hand information. “Almost everything he [Munch] created was autobiographical,” he says. “So I can use his letters, diaries, notes, drawings and even his paintings.” Blithely, he tells Fiske this project will take him “a year at most”. But another frame reveals the truth: seven years later and there he is, still stuck at his drawing board. Pinterest The artist Steffen Kverneland puts himself into the story. Photograph: SelfMadeHero In Norway, Munch has been widely acclaimed, winning the Brage prize for non-fiction in 2013. It’s pretty clear why. Not only does it look glorious, apeing gorgeously the various styles favoured by the artist; it’s also bracingly unsentimental, uninterested as it is in mythologising him. It doesn’t, however, aim to be comprehensive: tracking back and forth through key events in Munch’s life, it’s more scrapbook than conventional biography.

Thanks to the strict rules Kverneland sets himself, and his sensibility, which is a touch rock’n’roll, its chronology wanders; many facts are missed out altogether. Patience is also required for those moments when Kverneland punctuates the narrative with the trips he and Fiske make together, hoping to find the real settings of some of Munch’s most famous paintings. They are not, it has to be said, the greatest of art critics. “It’s like the sickest self-portrait ever,” says Fiske of The Scream. “Like Ben Kingsley with planets for eyes.” Nevertheless, it’s a mesmerising read, taking the eternally impoverished (because he was famously reluctant to sell his work) and periodically unstable Munch from Christiania (now Oslo) to Paris and Berlin and back again.

Kverneland carefully unpicks the painter’s relationship with, among others, Christian, his pious, widowed father; Hans Jæger , the anarchist who introduced him to bohemian life and all its attendant squalor; August Strindberg , the Swedish playwright and artist whose idiosyncrasies he mostly shared; and with several lovers, women from whom he would inevitably flee in the end (he had a morbid fear of marriage). Stubborn and frequently arrogant, Munch is rarely a sympathetic figure in this version of his life; there’s a reason why Kverneland makes him look, as a younger man, just like Dick Dastardly, all chin and waxed moustache. But his originality and commitment to his art is never in doubt and it’s this that gives the book its singular energy. Funny and irreverent, it makes Munch seem very human, even as it places his genius beyond doubt. Edvard Munch 1863–1944 | Tate 2012 Edvard Munch: The Modern Eye is a major exhibition which releases the work of this Norwegian painter. Blog The way in which every exhibition develops always differs.

The two main ways in which most exhibitions come to pass ... Blog Edvard Munch (1863-1944) is an artist who many people have probably heard of but few know much about. Of course ... Tate Etc. In 1930, when Munch was 66 years old, an intraocular haemorrhage in his right eye affected his sight. For several ... Tate Etc. The Norwegian artist is best known for his pictures of moody lovers and tortured souls. However, these were not merely ... Press Release

Question: What nationality was the artist Edvard Munch?
Answer: Norwegian