122. The Scream

 

The Scream
Edvard Munch. 1893 C.E. Norwegian. Tempera and pastels on cardboard

Edvard Munch portrayed pure, raw emotion in this artwork was a radical shift from the art tradition of his own time, and he is therefore credited with beginning the expressionist movement that spread through Germany and on to other parts of the world. Most of Edvard Munch's work relates to themes of sickness, isolation, fear and death.

Artist: Edvard Munch

Date: 1910

Medium: tempera on cardboard

Movement: Symbolism

Form:

• Tempera paint on cardboard
• mixing traditional, high-quality tempera paint with flimsy, industrial everyday cardboard
• Vibrant, strong color contrast
• non-naturalistic, skewed proportions, everything swirls into itself
• lots of movement and uncertainty
• this is to represent the feeling of the moment (SYMBOLISM)

Content:

• androgynous, elongated figure screams with hands pressed to its face in the foreground
• two figures walk along the bridge into the background
• sea swirls into the sky, everything is streaked and blended and sketchy
• power of natural forms calling to an individual

Function:

• Semi-autobiographic
• an expression of the themes that preoccupied Munch:
• relationships, life, death, dread
• recounts an experience he had when walking with friends
• struck with a sense of melancholy at the shocking sunset
• how to portray grappling with the intense cry of nature?
• A study in different mediums
• part of a series of four renditions of the same scene, called "The Frieze of Life"
• each using different surfaces and materials (this final one being tempera on cardboard)
• wanted to experiment with these different mediums to see how they may represent a story or a feeling differently

Context:

• (see "function" for semi-autobiographic context)
• Relation to Synesthesia
• Synesthesia is the synthesis of the senses
• some people may associate a smell with a musical note, or a color with a smell
• The Scream's swirling synthesis of the forces of nature may reflect some understanding of or relation to synesthesia
• (or maybe just a general sense of being overwhelmed and pulled in different directions by natural senses)
• (see "symbolist characteristics" for context of the artistic movement)

Symbolist Characteristics:

• Munch sought to express internal emotions through external forms
• dream-like, non-naturalistic
• key elements (symbols) are exaggerated and purposefully overshadow details that are not important to the essence of the painting
• color is key