12 ARTS AND CULTURE
THE FOUNDER May 2022
House of Expressionism MAJA KRISTIANSEN | CONTENT WRITER
The floors start out with some of Munch’s contemporaries from multiple artforms including film, poetry, and painting. Among these artists, the visitor will encounter Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali, recognised for their surreal and expressionistic films and paintings, including Un Chien Andalou and Melting Clocks, respectively.
Source: Unsplash
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he Munch Museum was opened on 22nd October 2021, after months of setbacks related to Covid restrictions. The museum’s expressionistic, as well as naturalistic style, lends itself perfectly to its artist of honour, Edvard Munch. Edvard Munch is one of the most well-known and renowned Norwegian artists of the late 19th and early 20th century, most often recognized for the painting Scream, which he finished painting in 1893. The museum showcases Munch’s fascinations and ideations within his paintings through the categorisations of each floor within the museum. The floors display both paintings by Munch and other artists that showcase the style Munch employed during the 19th and early 20th century. Reflecting the themes and emotions he explored within his paintings, as well as showcasing the future of impressionistic and naturalistic style.
Another floor is solely paintings by Edvard Munch, displaying his lifelong fascination with the intertwined relationship between joy and pain within love. This floor displays multiple versions of his paintings, including sketches and drawings. The most notable painting from this floor of love is the artwork Separation. The painting is of a woman being detached from a man with the separation shown visually through the brushstrokes that connect the pair, becoming smaller and smaller. This painting is one of many that shows the presence of pain within love. Another standout painting is Jealousy, which displays a man turned away from his subject of love, green with envy.
The painting Scream is primarily exhibited within a blacked-out room, where two versions of the painting are displayed on rotation every hour, making the encounter with the Scream painting unpredictable. It becomes clear that the painting accentuates the philosophical contemplation that haunts all of Munch’s work. That is, the recognition of the fact that the human experience and all the emotions that come with it are completely one’s own, like innate loneliness. Commenting on the multiple paintings, the museum expresses that:
‘all of the versions are different but equally powerful. Note how Munch placed a group of men in the background on a straight road that disappears into infinity. This makes their distance from the figure in the foreground even more obvious. What arouses angst and despair in one person may be insignificant for another’. The museum is an eclectic formation of the human experience through all artforms, attempting to grasp the internal world of people and subjects. It can, perhaps, inspire visitors not only to attempt any of the eclectic art forms and styles displayed within the museum, but also consider the individuality one holds in the world and how you can attempt to share it with others.
Review: The Procession by Hew Locke ISABEL WEST | ARTS EDITOR
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pon visiting the Tate Britain last weekend, I was surprised to be so enraptured by the Tate’s commission piece The Procession, especially as I stumbled upon it by accident. The Duveen Galleries, a long space stemming from the front of the building, houses this celebration of cultures until January of next year. The Procession takes you on a journey presenting you with Caribbean Carnival figures, PostColonial Trade images juxtaposed with pre-colonial inspired sculptures, images and records of the slave trade, natural and environmental disaster and references to the British empire and revolution.
