With an exhibition of more than 100 works spanning 60 years, the Orsay Museum in Paris shows that Edvard Munch, who lived1863 to 1944, cannot be reduced to his famous painting “The Scream.”
Because the complexity of Munch’s work is largely unknown, the exhibition seeks to showcase his entire artistic evolution, said curator Claire Berardi.
The exhibition Un poème de vie, d’amour et de mort, which translates as “a poem about life, love and death,” was created in collaboration with the Munch Museum in Oslo and will remain on display until January 22.
The collection is not organised chronologically but focuses instead on Munch’s recurring motifs of loneliness, love, disappearance and death, themes which go hand-in-hand with the various existential crises endured by the painter and graphic artist.
Munch’s fears can be seen in the sinuous lines of his compositions,paintings, etchings, lithographs and wood carvings, as well as the powerful and dynamic colours he used.
Among the major works on display in Paris are “Vampire,””Melancholy,” “Metabolism (Life and Death),” and “Evening on KarlJohan Street.” Munch’s iconic “The Scream” original is not in Paris,but its first version in print, a lithograph from 1895, is on display.
— dpa
