The Answer was Art, Always

A look at early modernism: The Scream, by Edvard Munch.

Edvard Munch,The Scream, 1893.

Everyone has seen this piece, I'm sure. It honestly is a truly fascinating piece in my opinion. It's an early modern expressionism piece, and provides both an interesting look at the movement itself as well as into the artist. Munch was a man with severe PTSD surrounding the deaths of his young sister and his mother, and was also generally just an anxious, agoraphobic man. This piece details his experience with a panic attack while out walking with two of his friends. Quote: "One evening I was walking along the 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". This painting was done purely for himself as an outlet. It's a representation of himself as the sceraming person. The skull-like appearance of the head represents his fear of death, while the bright, swirling reds in the background represent blood/his trauma from his sister's death by tuberculosis.

Munch also had a deeply complicated and...tumultuous relationship with a woman named Tulla Larsen, who inspired several of his other artworks. I won't get into those now, perhaps later though. They truly are fascinating. Early modern art like this just captures my attention so much...there's so much more to it than you would think and I love doing the deep analyses like this. I highly recommend looking at Munch's other works.

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