Edvard Munch The Scream Analysis

950 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Analysis of "the scream

ahar679 Essay Question 1
Edvard Munch 1864-1944
Edvard Munch was born and raised in Norway. His general moods that he painted were: love, loneliness, isolation, anxiety, fear and misery. Sickness and death were the main themes repeated in his works along with showing isolation of the individuals in their grief and loss. He lost his mother when he was five and then his sister and his brother, all to tuberculosis. Munch when he was an adult, had acute anxiety and depression and even had to be looked after at a institution.

‘The Scream’ 1893

Unfortunately, in 1908, Munch suffered a nervous breakdown, after which his portrait paintings had been changed by this traumatic experience. From the nervous breakdown came one of the most significant works of art. The Scream is the most important and well known work of art by Edvard Munch. Munch painted’The Scream’ the way it is, mainly due to his agoraphobia. The image was originally conceived by Munch to be a part of his epic Frieze of Life series, which explored the progression of modern life by focusing on the themes of love, angst, and death.1 Munch was trying to show expressive representation of emotions and personal relationships. This was due to Munch being associated with the international development of Symbolism during the 1890s and his recognition as a precursor of 20th-century Expressionism. 1
‘The visual subtlety and complexity of this composition can't be summed up in a cliché.’ The Scream is a portait of a painted soul. ‘We paint souls’ said Munch. It has come to be seen as a painting of the dilemma of modern man, a visualization of Nietzsche’s cry. God is dead, and we have nothing to replace him.’2 The complimentary colours of orange and blue naturally are calm but as a r...

... middle of paper ...

...od and sense of self. In Self-Portrait with a Cigarette, he portrayed himself almost being subsumed by a purple cloud of smoke, giving the impression that he had been smoking for some time. The smoke also heightens the expressive effect of his hand and face. He has painted yellow highlights on his face and hand as well as red veins popping on his hand giving him an overall sickly appearance. He puts so many different things in his paints, because of this the canvas almost has the appearance of a watercolor because the bottom of the it is dripping.
He almost looks startled, questioning, maybe a little surprised at himself or someone who is watching him. This is a very radical image because smoking a cigarette was not the typical way artists depicted themselves.
The self-portrait represents Munch as a Man directly engaging his viewer yet distanced from the world.

Show More
Related

  • Wayne White's 'Golden Surf Rossi: The Seventies'

    783 Words  | 2 Pages

    Wayne, transforms this painting into a three dimensional abstract piece of art. The focal point of the painting are the figures that look like letters and numbers that are in the front of the piece of art. This is where your eyes expend more time, also sometimes forgiving the background. The way the artist is trying to present this piece is showing happiness, excitement, and dreams. Happiness because he transmits with the bright colours. After probably 15 minutes on front of the painting I can feel that the artist tries to show his happiness, but in serene calm. The excitement that he presents with the letters, numbers and figures is a signal that he feels anxious about what the future is going to bring. Also in the way that the colors in the background are present he is showing that no matter how dark our day can be always will be light to

    Read More

  • Portrait Of A Collagist By An African American Artist Name Benny Andrews

    1100 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...e and now. By depicting himself in his work it’s as if he is saying this is who I am, take it or leave it, or in his own words “If you want to see me, you will see me as I am, and that self is thoroughly an artist, I will take on no second self that poses generically to keep with some tradition.”  (Source?)

    Read More

  • Subject Placement in American Gothic, The Third of May, Acrobat’s Family, and Waterseller

    1097 Words  | 3 Pages

    Besides bright or dim colors, and fine or rough brush strokes, artists use centralized composition to convey their interpretations in "The Acrobat's Family with a Monkey," "Amercian Gothic," "The Water-Seller," and "The Third of May,1808.”

    Read More

  • Natasha Trethewey: The Cathartic Use Of Visual Art

    1075 Words  | 3 Pages

    Since its emergence over 30,000 years ago, one of visual art’s main purposes has been to act as an instrument of personal expression and catharsis. Through the mastery of paint, pencil, clay, and other mediums, artists can articulate and make sense of their current situation or past experiences, by portraying their complex, abstract emotions in a concrete form. The act of creation gives the artist a feeling of authority or control over these situations and emotions. Seen in the work of Michelangelo, Frida Kahlo, Jean Michel-Basquiat, and others, artists’ cathartic use of visual art is universal, giving it symbolic value in literature. In Natasha Trethewey's Native Guard, Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness,

    Read More

  • A Nonsmoker With a Smoker, by Phillip Lopate

    571 Words  | 2 Pages

    He goes through many of his life experiences of smoking and tries to find understanding within them. Merriam-Webster defines smoking as; to inhale and exhale the fumes of burning plant material and tobacco; especially: to smoke tobacco habitually. The key word in that definition would be habitually. One who smokes generally is addicted or has formed a habit of smoking. Although distasteful to most people, those who smoke are generally willing to quit smoking, yet they're unable to "kick the habit."

    Read More

  • Blue Boouquet's Short Story: Transition From Innocence To Experience

    1325 Words  | 3 Pages

    Paz depicts this with his symbol in the cigarette and its simile as a comet. The speaker notes, “It drew a shining curve…like a tiny comet” (p.164). The comet in case represents innocence, as it is the brightness in the dark, nighttime sky. Nonetheless it will always disappear and maybe not be seen for a lifetime. This transition is a necessity as remaining in full innocence may have unintended consequences. In the analogy of the comet the larger and larger it appears to us earth, the closer it is to crashing and wreaking havoc. In terms of innocence, the larger and larger innocence is allowed to manifest, the greater the chances are of problems occurring. The protagonist’s innocence manifests to the point where the machete, “grazes [his] eyelids” (p.165) in the attempt to remove his eyes. Another significant symbol is the cigarette itself, its fire represents innocence in a similar way to the comet. As the fire in the cigarette burns out it gets closer to extinction. While the speaker has the lit cigarette he holds a romanticized view of his surroundings. He remarks that he, “felt free” (p.164) and full of, “such happiness” (p.164). It is only slightly after the fire burns out and he, “[throws] [his] cigarette down” (p.164) that his innocence begins to wane and experience waxes. Experience is necessary so that the mistakes are not

    Read More

  • Color as Metaphor in Film What Dreams May Come

    1341 Words  | 3 Pages

    Looking at landscape art, especially when painted by one of the masters, many have undoubtedly pondered: what would it be like to live there? Shapes and attention to detail are, of course, important in a painting. However, it is color that draws the eye and inspires the heart. Oscar Wilde, an Irish poet and dramatist, spoke well of this when he noted that, “Mere color, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways. (qtd in “color”)”. Vincent Ward had a similar understanding of this impact when, in 1998, he directed the movie What Dreams May Come. Looking at this film, one can easily imagine being inside a living painting. The use of color to emphasize the emotional state of a character or event is common in films; nevertheless, Director Ward goes even farther in using color to represent the actual characters themselves. Red is the shade chosen to signify Annie and likewise, blue is used for Chris. Both of these, as will be shown, are accurate in defining these fictitious people. However, it is the profound use of purple in this film that is the true focal point. When mixing red and blue paint, one would find that, after being mixed, they cannot be separated. Likewise, this is true of the life and love these characters build and share. Purple represents the many ways in which Chris and Annie are melded, and joined.

    Read More

  • Chaos in Art: Comparing Kandinsky and Pollock

    1978 Words  | 4 Pages

    Visually, both Wassily Kandinsky’s Composition VII and Jackson Pollock’s No. 2 constitute a chaotic arrangement of colors and images with no apparent relation to one another. The randomly scattered paint, large canvas, and over-clamped figures all build a similar visual chaos in both paintings. Despite the mayhem, the two paintings differ in the inner emotions each artist wanted to express and the nature of the “chaos.” While for Kandinsky the chaos represents the smooth and melodic sentiments raised by music, for Pollock the chaos depicts the more spontaneous and impulsive emotions. The authors’ differing goals lead Kandinsky to ponder and refine his painting to capture a more universal theme and Pollock to develop his “drip” painting method

    Read More

  • Chasing The Scream Analysis

    1889 Words  | 4 Pages

    Drug addiction is on the largest contributing factors for the deaths of millions of people throughout out the ages. Todays day in age drugs have become more dangerously more potent than they were a decade back. The majority of the population believe that the reason addicts become hooked on drugs because the the chemical triggers found in the drug. This has caused many society as a whole to look down on drug addicts and treat them with less respect than anyone who is not a drug addict. Johann Hari is an english author and journalist who was published articles in newspapers like the New York times, Huffington post and the Guardian, Hari has published his own book Chasing the Scream were he goes into a three year journey on the war on drugs.

    Read More

  • Formal Analysis of Woman and Bicycle by Willem de Kooning

    808 Words  | 2 Pages

    The contrasts between depth and surface, figure and landscape, promiscuity and modesty, beauty and vulgarity all present themselves in de Kooning’s Woman and Bicycle. Although the figure is a seemingly normal woman out for an afternoon with her bike, she becomes so much more through the artist’s use of color, contrast, and composition. The exotic nature of woman presents itself in her direct stare and slick buxom breasts in spite of a nearly indiscernible figure. It is understood that, on the whole, de Kooning did not paint with a purpose in mind, but rather as an opportunity to create an experience, however, that does not go to say that there isn’t some meaning that can come of this work. Even Willem de Kooning once said that art is not everything that is in it, but what you can take out of it (Hess p.144).

    Read More

  • Anne Sexton's Painting The Starrry Night By Anne Sexton

    1072 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...retation of the painting some aspects were surprising to how dark and heavy hearted she could speak, she took an interesting perspective. However in her interpretative poem she found a perspective of the painting that connected with her. As she used every stroke of darkness painted into the canvas an opportunity to have it symbolize this darkness and evil that resides in the world. It told her story and her experience of a starry night. Similarly Van Gogh had used every stroke of light painted into the canvas to be a symbol of beauty, and a symbol of his fascination of the night sky and its illuminating lights. He uses swift movements of his brush to depict a sky that seem to be able to sweep the mind away from the frustrations of this world in to the dreamy night light. A single painting worth a million words tells many stories through every perspective.

    Read More

  • Meaning Of Coposition IV By Wassily Kandinsky

    794 Words  | 2 Pages

    that draws the strongest contrast. When I see his painting, I see someone that is trying to express

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Johannes Vermeer's Woman In Blue Reading A Letter

    650 Words  | 2 Pages

    In an empty room at the Timken Museum of Art hangs one of the most iconic paintings of Johannes Vermeer, the astonishing painting, Woman in Blue Reading a Letter. In the painting a pale woman’s stands patiently while reading a letter. The woman appears to be wearing a blue jacket and a long gray skirt, and only gazing at the letter, ignoring all of her surroundings. The top right of the painting seems to be a map of the Netherlands, which attracts the viewer because it explains the setting of where the painting took place. The blue jacket around the woman’s torso appears to exaggerate the woman’s stomach, giving the impression that she might be pregnant. The blue chairs resemble a sign of absence as if she lives alone. The light on the top left shines on her face which enhances the viewer’s view of the woman’s facial expression. Johannes Vermeer’s interpretation of complex colors, the light, and her body language inflicts a persuasion on the viewer that the women is traumatized by the news in the letter.

    Read More

  • Jackson Pollock and Art

    965 Words  | 2 Pages

    ... expression of the self. Pouring and flinging paint onto canvas, usually on the floor, he created large “all-over”—completely covered, large-scale—surfaces with no place for the eye to rest.

    Read More

  • Painting Analysis: Saturn Devouring His Son by Francisco Goya

    794 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...th color, the way he used color when it was used conveyed what was important in the piece. The body as it hangs lifeless from Saturn’s death grip is dripping with blood and it is even between the white knuckles of Saturn. In having Saturn’s knuckles white it emphasizes his grip that is so strong on the body he is drawing blood from the back. It is showing his passion in that the deed has to be done. His expression is wild and his stance is cowardly showing that he may not have wanted to do what he was doing. The message in the painting is that time consumes us all, and that is by having the god of time eating a faceless body. There is another message in this too, I believe and it is that people will do almost anything to keep their reign in power. I found this painting very stimulating and gave me many emotions. I think just because of that the piece is successful.

    Read More

More about Edvard Munch The Scream Analysis

Open Document