2 comments about The Symbolist Prints of Edvard Munch: The Vivian and David Campbell Collection.

1. He was bound determined not to paint people reading and women knitting, but instead to show people who breathed emotions into his darkly suggestive prints. "Death in the sickroom" showed family members at the ages when they were painted, not when his sister Sophie died; it expressed unity in grief as one of death's longlasting effects by seemingly overlapping planes flowing together across bleakly empty areas, starkly B&W contrasts, and stiffly posed mourners frozen in misery. "The mirror" heads of a disembodied man and woman was his first woodcut to give up the Japanese method of printing each color with a separate woodblock; instead, he jigsawed blocks into pieces according to compositional design, linked each piece with a different color, and put everything back together into a multicolored print. He considered his "Sick child II" his most important print: his first color lithograph, it focused on the diseased upper chest and the head in profile facing right against a large pillow in order to gaze with tragically meditative resignation into the flatly patterned looming void on the far right. However, his "Scream" became the most compelling image for the late twentieth century: it expressed terror before the universe by powerfully decorative lines reverberating through the starkly opposed black lines and bleakly white voids of pulsing land and sky. Elizabeth Prelinger and Michael Parke-Taylor have applied reader-friendly illustrations and text to their catalog of the Vivian and David Campbell exhibition. Their SYMBOLIST PRINTS OF EDVARD MUNCH goes down good with PROGRESSIVE PRINTMAKERS by Warrington Colescott and Arthur Hove, PRINTS AND PRINTMAKING by Antony Griffiths, EDVARD MUNCH by Josef Paul Hodin, and THE PRINT IN THE WESTERN WORLD by Linda C Hults.



2. Il montrait sa soeur Sophie qui mourait jeune, entouree de toute la famille. Mais il montrait chacun a l'age qu'il avait a l'epoque de la peinture, et non pas a la mort de la jeune fille. Car la douleur durait a jamais et unifiait toute la famille pour toujours. Puis avec des tetes d'une femme et d'un homme, gravees et multicolorees, il cessait de suivre le style repandu des japonais de faire une seule couleur d'un seul troncon de bois. Son prefere de tout son oeuvre etait Sick Child II, en tant que sa premiere lithographie en couleur. Mais son Scream est le plus reconnu, en tant que l'image la plus frappante du 20eme siecle.

No comments about Edvard Munch: Theme And Variation.

2 comments about The Story of Edvard Munch.

1. Bjrstad did a wonderful job portraying Munch with his style and prose. This dark book is a fabulous read, especially for fans of art history and Edvard Munch. The book does not read like the average novel, but the style is quickly and easily adapted too. I strongly recommend this book.



2. This book is in reality historical fiction, but based generously on the letters and journal entries of Edvard Munch. In some ways it is like a psychodrama given the complex emotional make-up of the painter. I read it slowly in order to absorb all the nuances created by the author. Ketil Bjornstad wrote as if he were a personal friend of Munch's. I found myself stopping frequently to study the paintings described in the book.

3 comments about After the Scream: The Late Paintings of Edvard Munch.

1. munch is an artist who became so well known for an early work ("the scream") that his later work was eclipsed by it. the fact that nearly all of his later works hang in an oslo museum hasn't helped either. so it's a real surprise to browse this exhibition catalog and discover the many beautiful paintings munch created in the half century between "the scream" (1893) and his death (1944).

   munch's technique is very interesting: using thinned oil paints, with direct application of single layers of color, his paintings approach watercolors in their spontaneity, light, and beautifully textured color harmonies. at the same time, his themes are very personal -- his illnesses, his large estate near oslo, his lonely life painting in the countryside, his struggle with alcoholism. technique and themes combine to give his work a uniquely poignant lyricism.

   the accompanying text on munch's life and work is well written and comprehensive. this is a great gift for someone who loves painting -- even if they know art well, munch's late works will come as a happy revelation.




2. Elizabeth Prelinger's After The Scream celebrates the late paintings of Edvard Munich: haunting paintings which also reveal quite a different side of the artist. While his images of people remain striking, he painted a range of subjects and used a brighter approach later in life, and this accompanies the first major exhibition of his works since 1978 - and the first to focus on his later achievements.



3. Preliger writes swiftly and cleanly, though of course much of the book's heft is devoted to reproducing the paintings under question. She is very good at describing and clarifying how narrow our view of Munch has been; we treat him like some kind of haunted Poe or Klimt-like figure, even though the majority of his work has a golden glow like a fairy tale, and is not horror stricken as the early work we associate him with. His painting is smooth and delicate, reminding me of the clear tempera colors we used to paint Easter Eggs with when we were small children, and there is something of the innocence of a child about his mature work; it is as though having undergone the darkness early on, his spirit was allowed to soar later on. Or compare Shakespeare's late romances like The Winter's Tale or Cymbeline with the earlier and heavier problem plays (Measure for Measure) etc. In any case, brava to Elizabeth Preliger for her much needed corrective.

4 comments about Edvard Munch: 1863-1944 (Basic Art).

1. This is an excellent book. It explores the full spectrum of Munch's career through an interesting presentation of words and pictures.



2. Here's the great aid for understanding the life and works of one of most underestimated genius. Great story on great Norwegian. Plentiful of color reproductions, abundant in information, great source for studying tormented painter. Worth every minute spent on reading. Looking forward to see Munch Museum in June. Nenad from Croatia.



3. I fell in love with Munch when I saw one of his prints(the scream) at the Met museum in NYC, this is an amazing man with an amazing mind and an eye for color. the prints are beautiful in this book.



4. This book is short, only 48 pages, but is packed with an incredible amount of information and art. Zeri has done a phenomenal job of encapsulating Munch's life and work in a single, easily digestible package, one from which admirers of "The Scream" and art enthusiasts in general can learn a great deal. I would love to explore other books in Zeri's series.

3 comments about Munch: In His Own Words.

1. I could not put this book down and when I finished, I felt as though I finally had some insight into Munch as a person as well as an artist. If you would like to have a better understanding of both the man and his paintings this book is for you.



2. Edvard Munch painted "The Scream." (BTW, his name is said like "monk", not like "bunch.") That was just one work from a long and dedicated life in art, and arguably not his defining work. Look at his "Sick Child" (p.15), and at the mother. Does she really have anything more in her than the Screamer, except just that little more strength a woman has than a man does? Only quietly enough for others to bear?
   
   I never thought much of Munch until I saw a display of his graphic work, largely woodcuts and some lithos. Then, I realized just how literal his painting style is. "As long as cameras can not be used in Hell or in Heaven, painters have no fear of competition." His paintings, and even more his prints, are about heaven and hell. Together, in the same picture, as his fevered mind saw them.
   
   Many of his painted and graphic works center on two monopoles: light and dark. Become aware of this frequent pattern, and you'll have almost the visual experience of seeing a magnetic field. His visual field contains a North and South pole, a source and a sink, a plus and a minus. In those, composition consists of defining the two, filling the space between the two, and emptying the space around the two. I recommend his work most highly to any student, at any level, who wants to learn composition by being kicked in the gut with it. Much of Munch's work is about stark, polar power.
   
   He also eliminates the placement of figure and ground, and creates the dichotomy of figure and ground. Half or more of his paintings show it: that aura emanating from the human being that sets it off from the material world around it. The background has no chance to interact with that force of person that emanates from each figure, so there must be a buffer zone between them. That, I think, explains the brushwork halo around so many of his human renderings: an attempt to define their visual limit, at the expense of any relationship to the world around them.
   
   Munch is good, if emotional truth means more to you than optical literality. He's also hard to take, and becomes harder to take as you learn more. I really think he put it all out there for us to see, whether or not we can take it all in.
   
   //wiredweird



3. 
   
   *Munch In His Own Words* is worth five stars just for the generous reproductions of the paintings, drawings, lithographs, and woodcuts that illustrate the text, as well as the selection of photographs taken by/and of Munch himself. These reproductions give one an idea of the stunning range and variety of Munch's complete life work, which goes well beyond his reputation primarily as the guy who painted `The Scream.' Nevertheless, in spite of this variety, one can still trace the red thread that runs through virtually everything he ever produced in his long career: a violently passionate and often antagonistic engagement with life and the world around him.
   
   So it is that the actual text of *Munch In His Own Words* can only be a bonus--and in this book we get extracts from Munch's personal journals and letters that offer first-hand insights into his complex psyche from which his extraordinary art emerged. Some of these texts are brilliant evocations of the artist's role as rebel and savior, others repetitive and obsessive, still others read like the ravings of a paranoid schizophrenic. Not having access to the complete texts, one wonders if they might have been edited and selected with an eye to a little more variety and little less repetition, but it's hard to complain. Munch is almost as explosive and idiosyncratic a writer as he is a painter and, on the whole, the texts provide a rewarding counterpoint and context to the art.
   
   Another bonus is the introduction and chapter openings by the book's editor Poul Erik Tojner. Sometimes elliptical to the point of incomprehensibility, studded with fancifully pretentious interpretations, Tojner does manage to provide some genuinely enlightening and provocative observations, perhaps none moreso than his suggestion that one can find striking parallels between the work of Munch and--of all people--Andy Warhol! Outrageous at first--and yet Tojner makes a wholly compelling and convincing argument for this unlikeliest of pairings.
   
   A rich and compulsively readable--not to mention eye-catching--volume, *Munch In His Own Words* is a great overall look at an artist who painted, in his own words, the only way he knew how: with his heart's blood.

1 comments about Edvard Munch: The Modern Life of the Soul.

1. This was one of the greatest art exhibits I have ever seen (and I have been around the world) and this book is a comprehensive look at the stages and series of the paintings of Munch that were featured. Engaging and engrossing!

5 comments about Edvard Munch: Behind the Scream.

1. There is probably no more fiercely recognizable image in modern art than Edvard Munch's _The Scream_ (1893). The nightmarish picture seems so essential to our way of looking at modern life that many people do not know anything of Munch's other works, which is a shame; he lived eighty years and was productive through them all. His most famous work is even in the subtitle of his first full biography written in English, _Edvard Munch: Behind The Scream_ (Yale University Press) by Sue Prideaux. The author seems particularly well suited to her subject. She is part Norwegian and has lived a life shared between Norway and England. Her grandmother was painted by Munch, and her great-uncle was one of the artist's loyal patrons. She has produced a big biography that is well-illustrated with the subject's works. This is essential. Munch wrote, "Just as Leonardo studied the recesses of the human body and dissected cadavers, I try from self-scrutiny to dissect what is universal in the soul." Many and varying results of the dissections in paintings and in his profuse journals are included here, making a biography that is surprisingly gripping.
   
   Munch wrote, "Illness, insanity and death were the black angels that hovered over my cradle." He was born in 1863, and tuberculosis took his beloved mother and sister when he was a boy. His father, Munch wrote, "temperamentally nervous and obsessively religious... From him I inherited the seeds of madness." His illness kept him from attending school regularly, but he early showed artistic talent, even though he got little training in art, and often rejected the training he got. Instructors, and the public, could not understand that he had no obsession with painting with physical accuracy, but was obsessed with documenting impressions and feelings. His early career was the classic one of the starving artist, a bohemian life with many lovers (sometimes shared with others in his circle), and plenty of absinthe and other alcohol intake. Many of his great works were made when he was impoverished, but eventually he found an unlikely niche, fashionable portrait painter to the rich (or as he called them, his "Mycenaeans"). The portraits were untraditional, and often uncomplimentary, but they paid; he was to become a very rich man, although perhaps due to his years of penury, he always lived simply and fretted that the tax man was ruining him. It is perhaps not coincidental that with his increase in income came critical success, although in his own country, he suffered attacks in the press, and became reclusive and suspicious. He was able to sell his expensive portraits, but had trouble forcing himself to part with any of his personal work, insisting that his paintings were his children, and keeping them around him, even if this meant they were stacked badly, were exposed to weather, or became scratching posts for the cat.
   
   He feared all his life that he would be touched with his family's insanity, and eventually he checked himself into a Copenhagen psychological clinic in 1908. His doctor diagnosed merely alcoholism, but he was put through a fresh air cure, heart massages, and mild charges of electricity. "I have been rather short of electricity," he wrote, but thought he was getting an excellent effect from "Galvanisation, Faradisation, and Franklinisation." None of it did as much good as the steps he took for his own cure, a method he had taught himself when he was young and could not sleep because of conflict with his father: he turned his thoughts into a drawing or painting. It was resolving life's difficulties in the arena that really mattered, in his art. His paintings thus form a spiritual biography like no other artist's. This book biography is a fine introduction to the biography on canvas.



2. You don't have to be a fan or "understand" Munch's work to enjoy this book. Edvard Munch was a very interesting and complex (not to mention screwed up) person. His art came from within and at many times, tormented him until he got it onto canvas. This book really gets you inside Munch's world and the influences (none of them good) that inspired him to paint the bizzare things that he did. If you should happen to read this, follow it with "The Rescue Artist" by Edward Dolnick. You won't regret it.



3. The power of the book is that it provides a map for the emotional trajectory of Munch's inner life; from hope and excitement to depression and mania. Throughout his life he painted only what was true for him, whether actual events or metaphorical motifs. Munch lived what we see in his paintings. However, Prideaux attempt to validate Munch's images leads to a simplification of details.
   
   For instance quoting a letter to the head of the National Art Gallery in Norway, Jen Thiss, Munch writes: "The greatest color is black, the most essential color. It is the `tabala rasa' for pure expression. Nothing prostitutes it.' (Prideaux page 179). If Prideaux would have looked further she would have realized Munch was actually quoting Odilon Redon's from his book, To Myself. This particular quote was highlighted for the recent exhibition of works by Redon at the Oct. 2005-Jan. 2006 at the Museum of Modern Art; Seeing the Invisible (p.67 of MOMA catalogue).
   
   More misrepresentation lies in chapter 13 concerning what most art historians feel was a turning point in his artistic achievement, The Scream. Prideaux first describes its pictorial development with a painting called Despair, she writes; "Despair was his first attempt at the scream. It is a side portrait of the himself set against the bay of Kristiania, the town that was the seat of all his misery. In her very next sentence however, she says, "The figure walking against the flow of the crowd in the middle of the street with is his back to us is Munch's".(Prideaux, p.134). Unless one was very familiar with Munch's paintings they would never know that she is no longer talking about Despair, but has jumped to Munch's painting of Evening on Karl Johan. This kind of careless description dims some of the brilliance we find elsewhere in the narrative.
   
   Prideaux makes a bold attempt of trying to make sense of a life that did not make sense. Yet for Munch lovers her account of the specific fine points of his life is well worth the read. We are left feeling about the book the way Munch felt about his art: "the important thing was not the finished work or preserving it as such, but instead only that something assumed perfect artistic form...then it would become a part of the fabric of the world, which could never conceive without it again."
   For a fuller appreciation of Munch's work check out the spectacular exhibition currently at the Museum of Modern Art in New York city-till May 19, 2006.
   
   I welcome comments about this review at
   newrealities@earthlink.net



4. I realize that a work of art such as the "Scream" should not be dissected but seen as a whole,but this work of Munch's invites it,especially after reading this book.There's a cornucopia of hidden events of Munch's life placed into this picture,only a few of which i've been able to find.This painting was made at a critical point in Munch's life when he was dabbling in the occult mixed with"alcoholic creativity" and the work reflects it,in an artistic, interesting way.I was fortunate enough to see the Munch exhibit when it was on tour around 1980 and i remember vividly the impact that his paintings had on myself as well as others particularly "The Sick Child". While "The Scream" seems like the showstealer really all of his paintings are as equally profound. This book gives the story and the struggle behind Munch's work in a thoughtful and readable way with alot of research.Now when i gaze at the scream i see a large black raven hovering over and dominating the picture,the bloody face of a suicide gazing from a surrealistic green,and a dark figure from Munch's past dreesed in black on the left border,one Munch would have wanted to forget if he could. Then there is the "red sky",is that a red sky in the morning,"sailor take warning,or a red sky at night,"sailor delight". Seeing as the 2 ships in the harbor appear to be beginning a swirl into a maelstrom,what do you think?Then there is the almost undistinguishable image of the bird,(a stork or crane?) encased in white yellow running through the red sky. The perfect nightmare graphically drawn.Also there is an unmistakeable image of a smalltooth sawfish that dominates the painting,an STS. Another type of STS is the Serological Test for Syphilus(STS),developed by the Jewish bacteriologist,Albert Neisser who resided in Norway during this period.Since many of Munch's nihilist "friends"contracted this disease,(including Jaeger),is Munch telling us something here or retelling himself? Really gives a person something to scream about!! I'm not even an art critic but after reading this book i've taken a new read on Munch's work.Soo enjoy and happy nightmares!!!or maybe the figure on the bridge is screaming in spiritual ecstasy as it appears to be a ghost bathed in light,maybe seeing its true nature despite the negativity.All of this bathed in numerous shades of greens,yellows,reds,blues,and dark shadows. The author said that Munch kept his paintings close to him because they were his children and would only sell a painting out of dire necessity and even then would try to retieve it later.Even the Nazis didn't know what to make of Munch banning his works as decadent art,yet Goebbels himself openly admiring and fascinated by much of Edwards art.Yet Munch was too much the true artist to get involved with politics and although Norway was sympathetic to the Nazis Munch kept his distance from them.It is amazing how when i gaze upon the "Scream" now i can see the motion of the colors,like a dream on Canvas.I never saw any of this until i read this book.



5. As a long time fan of Edvard Munch's art, this is the best of all the biographies I've read about the artist including his own private dairy. "The Private Journals of Edvard Munch: We Are Flames Which Pour Out of the Earth" by Munch and translated by J. Gill Holland (no relation to this reviewer) should also be checked out by Munch admirers. Sorry about that digression--back to this wonderful biography. Sue Prideaux's nearly four-hundred page history first caught my attention on the "New Releases" tables of at the Boston Antheaum. After leafing through the volume, I immediately ordered my own copy because I knew it was a book in which I'd want to dog-ear pages and scribble comments in the book's margins. The beginning of the book was difficult to read. Munch's father was a religious zealot who made his living as a physician. Unfortunately, even with his own family, he seemed more interested in saving a person's soul than sometimes saving their life or curing them of their ailments. His very fanaticism overwhelmed Young Edvard Munch and the rest of his family. Munch's mother and sister died of TB and he himself barely survived it in his youth. The author's description of life in the Munch household was so depressing that it almost made me stop reading. It was certainly not a good advertisement for practicing this brand of Christianity. It's little wonder that in adulthood Edvard Munch became addicted to acholol and drugs. He was afraid to give them up because he felt his inspiration was one of the results of the drunken fog that often enveloped him. Once he finally committed himself for treatment, he was forced to clean up his act and he discovered his inspiration wasn't coming from a bottle. This book is a wonderful portrait of Munch and the era in which he lived. Germany was the country that first recognized and rewarded his genius. Munch's many phobias make him a fascinating character to study. Considering his own personal demon's, his artworks are actually quite tame. Learn why when he begrudingly sold one of his paintings, he'd immediatley paint another version to replace that lost child at his dinner table. Even though the Nazi's ordered all his work to be destroyed, Hilter's chief aides praised and collected it for their personal collections. Throughout the book the reader can only be amazed that either Munch or his work actually managed to survive the chaos that surrounded him during his entire lifetime. He was certainly an eccentric by any definition of the term.

1 comments about Graphic Works of Edvard Munch.

1. Munch is best known for his iconic work "The Scream," a work that has been reproduced & parodied countless times since its creation, but which still resonates with emotional power even after such popular saturation. Well, there's a lot more to this artist than just one famous work! This collection of his prints is an excellent introduction to a world of raw feeling laid bare, often swathed in blackness & palpable dread. Munch clearly felt & anticipated the alienation & fear of the 20th (and now 21st) century, depicting it with naked intensity. He delves deeply into the darkest places of the human psyche, making it tangible for all to see, whether they want to or not. This isn't always comforting art, but it's revelatory. A recommended volume!

5 comments about The Rescue Artist: A True Story of Art, Thieves, and the Hunt for a Missing Masterpiece.

1. To use an old cliche' this book was right up my alley. It fascinating because it's about "true crime," which is far more intriguing to me than the antics in the Da Vinci Code. The meanderings didn't bother me. I wanted to know about the history of art thievery. Charlie Hill is a great character--flawed, quirky and still believable--a complete mess! I also found the writing well drawn--good vocalbulary--good descriptions. I loved the way he described Charlie as if "a careless ckerk had stapled together pages from several resumes." I found myself smiling as I read this great book.



2. This was a fascinating look at the world of Art theft and those responsible for recovering the masterpieces. While the book's central focus is on the theft and recovery of Edvard Munch's "The Scream" (taken from the National Gallery in Oslo, Norway on February 12, 1994), it also managed to pack in true stories of solved and unresolved thefts of some of the worlds most beloved paintings.
   
   I have been to some of the world's most renowned museums and have seen original Van Gogh's, Renoir's, DaVinci's and Rembrandt's, etc., and on each occasion the place always seemed so secure. Not so according to this book. Evidently museums are lacking the funds in their budget to beef up security, making it a sitting duck. What's worse is that the criminals, if caught, face very little penalties for stealing these items. It's outrageous if you think about it.
   
   Excellent book that was well worth my time.



3. Edward Dolnick has turned the story of the theft of Edvard Munch's famous painting "Scream" from a museum on Oslo into a great character study of the English detective who gets it back. Two mystery men steal a ladder, climb a wall, break a window, and make off with the poorly-defended painting.
   
   Detective Charlie Hill uses his half-English, half-American upbringing to impersonate an employee of California's Getty Museum interested in ransoming the painting. James Bond-type intrigue ensues - missed connections, interfering local police, thuggish bodyguards, aimless drives through the middle of the night, fistfights, etc. etc.
   
   Dolnick writes with humor and verve; the story moves speedily and only occasional descends to cliche. The greatest strength of the book is its some heroic depiction of Hill and some sidekick characters. My only slight disappointment was that the "whodunnit" revelations at the end seem like an offhand afterthought. The motivations, plans, and intentions of the actual thieves are given minimal space; I was left feeling a bit teased (teased, but satisfied).



4. If the reader is interested in a fast pace and action, then this book will not satisfy. The basic story is not a lengthy one. The digressions into background matters provide useful peeks into assorted issues, such as thievery, forgery and the art world, but go on for too long and should have been condensed. I found myself impatient for the story to move forward. The sheer number of delays and digressions bordered on comical.



5. The Rescue artist is a swift and exciting book that revolves around Charlie Hill, an unforgettable (and quite real) detective on the hunt for missing masterpieces, in this case Edvard Munch's classic "Scream" stolen from a museum in Oslo, Norway. Dolnick writes crisp, well-turned sentences that pull the reader along. I felt like I was reading a good, long magazine article, like in the New Yorker. At times the story jumps and shifts around too much, and I had to backtrack a couple times to pick up what was going on, but this is really good stuff, entertaining as can be. Highly recommend.