Screaming for Munch in Oslo, Oslo, Norway

In 2012, Edvard Munch’s 1895 pastel, “The Scream” sold for a record price of just under $120 million at Sotheby’s auction house in New York City. This was then the most expensive piece of art ever sold at an auction, sealing Munch’s reputation as one of the most influential painters. What makes Munch’s paintings so engaging?

There is an infinite number of ways to experience artwork and this is particularly relevant to the paintings of Edvard Munch (1863-1944): as the most famous member of the symbolism movement of the 1890’s, Norway’s most famous artist’s goal is to express the ideas that lay concealed behind the visible world. As such, a whole narrative can be created from these undulating lines and palettes full of contrasts, from these characters often looking at you from the canvas, from these mysterious and often very desperate images with no clear solutions. “I do not paint what I see, but what I saw” once said the painter whose sicknesses and personal tragedies had been central to his themes. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).