Munch
| General Informations | |
|---|---|
| Name | Edvard Munch |
| Birth | 12 December, 1869 |
| Death | 23 January, 1944 |
| Movements | Symbolism |
| Expressionism | |
| Music | Joaquin Rodrigo (22 November 1901 - 6 July 1999) - Invocation y Danza |
Edvard Munch is considered as one of the major symbolist painters, forerunner of the expressionist movement.
"I don't paint what i see, but what i've seen" he said, to underline his distance from the (post)impressionism.
Munch is interested in showing what happens inside his head, how his unrational side takes over the rational one and modifies the reality perceived: he wants to let the viewer see the world through his eyes, with all the pain and anxiety he felt.
The resulting world is a distorced one, where the artist's mind acts as a filter on the visual inputs, changing colours, shapes and lines.
Quotes from the artist
No longer shall I paint interiors with men reading and women knitting. I will paint living people who breathe and feel and suffer and love.
My art is rooted in a single reflection: why am I not as others are? ... my art gives meaning to my life.
A few words about the music
Invocation y Danza is Joaquin Rodrigo's major work for solo guitar (from the same author we have the popular guitar concerto called "Concerto de Aranjuez"). The opera is dedicated to Manuel De Falla, an important spanish composer who died when Rodrigo was 45. The language is quite atonal, even if very distant from the avant-garde music movements and tendencies of the 21th century.
The opera is diveded into 2 movements which are, as the title says, "Invocation" and "Danza": both of them can be listened in the video. The aggressive interpretation of this work is by Maestro Pepe Romero.
Selected works
The Scream - National Gallery, Oslo
A vaguely human figure in the center of the picture is screaming with its head enclosed between the arms, personifying desperation. The sky seems to be bleeding, the lines are wavy and "in peaceless motion", like the twisting thoughts of the author.
Madonna - Munch Museet, Oslo
This was a scandalous work at the time. Indeed, no one before that time ever tried to represent the holy virgin Mary in such a way, but today we can easly affirm that this is one of Munch's best masterpieces. The woman is nude, sensual, portrayed in a moment of unconsciousness (alluded also by the wavy lines around her). On the borders there are spermatozoons running, and the fetus is separated from the mother, on the bottom-left corner, with a worried look, doomed to come to life. Sexuality and life are themes strictly connected to pain and sufferings.
