the scream of munch

"The Scream" by Edvard Munch, 1893. Oil on Canvas, 91x73.5cm.
*Meaning.. "Suddenly the sky turned blood red-...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". A sunset stroll along a road above an Oslo fjord, a blood-red sky, a sensation of nameless dread. This is how the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch (1863-1944) described the visionary experience that inspired him to create The Scream—his most famous work and one of the most recognizable images in modern art.
*Context.. The artist was considered an early expressionist. He was influenced by primitive art to create dramatic artworks that communicated raw emotion. The experience that caused the painting happened high up on the only point from which one can look across and see the city of Oslo, spread across the water, almost as Christ saw the city spread before Him from a high place, when the Devil tempted Him. What looks like a road in the painting was actually a path, and the bridge is actually a safety railing.. The city's slaughterhouse was up there, and so was  the city’s madhouse, in which his sister had been incarcerated.. The screams of the animals being slaughtered in combination with the screams of the insane were reported to be a terrible thing to hear.


*Response.. I chose this painting from our 'History of Portraiture' assignment because it appeals to me. The meaning really drew my attention as I reckon it gives the definition of art without having to know the real meaning of it and I know how he was feeling. In researching the painting, I found Edvard Munch's background explained a lot about it. Born in 1863 and raised in Oslo, Munch's father was an impoverished army doctor with a hellfire religious Christianity that placed a great fear in young Edvard. He lost his mother and sister to tuberculosis, his father died soon after, and his other sister went mad. He decided to pursue painting and came under the influence of an immoral friend that led him into a life of mad corruption. He wished to paint the life of the soul and that tragic phase of his life and the tragedies of his past helped to produce a series of paintings known as "the frieze of life". This painting,"The Scream", was the last of the series and showed Munch at his most despairing. A lot of people have different perceptions and interpretations of Munch's painting. Some think the person in the image is screaming a silent scream that cannot be heard; others reckon that as the person is covering their ears, maybe the scream is coming from the anxieties of life which only they can hear. With the vast expanse of space that seems so overwhelming and the feeling of screaming portrayed on the persons face I feel close to the painting because in many ways I can relate to it.. It perfectly portrays the feelings I have when I wake up from the nightmares I have a lot..and makes anyone looking at it feel slightly afraid. I think that is what I like about it, it symbolizes a world-wide emotion we all feel and experience. The final breaking point of the soul.