The Scream by Edvard Munch

Munch's subject matter is symbolist in content, depicting a state of mind rather than an external reality. Munch maintained that the impressionist idiom did not suit his art. Interested in portraying not a random slice of reality, but situations brimming with emotional content and expressive energy, Munch carefully calculated his compositions to create a tense atmosphere.

Edvard Munch is one of those artists whose work makes a dramatic impact on me.... his works resonate and reverberate in some way.. it is possible to get into his work and in a way 'feel' or become a part of the chaos he portrays...

We have an expression in Ireland when you look at something and get a shiver down your back,, we say;-

someone is walking on your grave...

Munch does that to me, somewhere in another dimension we all bleed...

The Scream was sold for $119,922,500 at Sotheby’s in New York City on May 2nd 2012

In a note in his diary - the page headed Nice 22.01.1892, Munch described his inspiration for the image thus:

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.

—Edvard Munch

Edvard Munch, Norway's most popular artist, was a painter, lithographer, etcher, and wood engraver. He is looked upon as one of the most significant influences on the development of German and Central European expressionism. Munch's convulsed and tortuous art was formed by the misery and conflicts of his time, and, even more important, by his own unhappy life. Childhood tragedy, intense and dramatic love affairs, alcoholism, and ceaseless traveling are reflected in his works, particularly in paintings like The Sick Child, The Scream, and Vampire. Munch's pictures show his social awareness and his tendency to express, as in Puberty, many of the basic fears and anxieties of mankind.

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