Arts & Architecture - Norway - page 1022

CULTURAL ICON: EDVARD MUNCH
Edvard Munch (1863-1944), Norway's most-renowned painter, was a tortured soul:
his mother and elder sister died of tuberculosis and his younger sister suffered from
mental illness from an early age. Munch's first great work, The Sick Child, was a
portrait of his sister Sophie shortly before her death. In 1890 he produced the haunt-
ing Night, depicting a lonely figure in a dark window. The following year he finished
Melancholy and began sketches of what would become his best-known work, The
Scream, which graphically represents Munch's own inner torment.
In 1892 Munch buried himself in a cycle of angst-ridden, atmospheric themes col-
lectively entitled Frieze of Life - A Poem about Life, Love and Death . Beyond the
canvas, his obsession with darkness and doom cast a long shadow over his life. Alco-
holism, chronic emotional instability and a tragic love affair culminated in the 1907
work Death of Marat, and, a year later, he checked into a Copenhagen mental-health
clinic for eight months.
After leaving the clinic, Munch settled on the coast at Kragerø. It became clear
that Munch's postclinic work was to be altogether different, dominated by a sunnier,
more hopeful disposition dedicated to humans in harmony with their landscape.
Best Art Galleries
» National Gallery, Oslo
» Munch Museum, Oslo
» Bergen Kunst Museum, Bergen
» Rogaland Art Museum, Stavanger
» National Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo
» Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo
» Henie-Onstad Art Centre, Oslo
Painting & Sculpture
Nineteenth-century Norway gave birth to two extraordinary talents: painter Edvard Munch
and sculptor Gustav Vigeland ( Click here ).