Munch Comes to MOMA, But No 'Scream'

by Alex Russel
alex.russel@artschoolreview.com

New York fine art students will be spoiled this season. The Museum of Modern Art, newly reopened in a resplendent midtown building, will host a rare Edvard Munch exhibition, one of the first major retrospective's of the Norwegian expressionist work to take place in the US in nearly thirty years.

And no, The Scream, easily his most famous painting, will not be there. Stolen in Norway last year, the painting has yet to be recovered.

Fine Art School Favorite

Munch has always been a favorite of art students. His moody paintings and drawings of dissolute bourgeois life in early 20th century Olso set the example for young artists trying to capture the anxious lining to middle class life.

Crystallizing Munch's style is The Scream, one of the world's most famous images. Painted around 1893, the picture of a man in a silent scream has come to represent human anxiety in an anxious age.

Munch On The Scream

According to Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, Munch described the conception of the painting thusly,

"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."

Art School Students Miss Out

Today, scholars think the blood red sky may have been caused by the 1883 volcano eruption in Krakatoa,, Indonesia. Discharge from that cataclysm changed sunset sky color almost all over the world.

The theft that is depriving art students and spectators at large of Munch's most famous painting took place in August 2004 in Oslo's famed Munch museum. Two gunmen held a gallery room hostage and quickly escaped with the help of a third person waiting in a car outside.

The thieves ripped the wooden frame off of the painting, taking only the cardboard painting. Norwegian officials expect the painting has been seriously damaged or even destroyed altogether.

About the Author

Alex Russel is a freelance writer living in Brooklyn, NY. Since graduating from Syracuse University he has worked at many different media companies in fields as diverse as film, TV, advertising, and journalism. He holds a dual bachelor's degree in English and History.

Sources

USA Today

Posted on September 6, 2005 at 11:43 PM