Munch: At the Munch Museum, Oslo

Synopsis

Edvard Munch is Norway's most important painter and graphic artist and the only one to exercise a decisive influence on European art. A forerunner of Expressionism, his works were influenced by an early life tortured by sickness, insanity, rejection and guilt and he worked through his neuroses in his paintings. With the greatest consistency throughout his life, Munch created a life's work which would not only enable the deepest problems of the century to live on into our time, but also says something about human existence, which couldn't be put into words. Right up to the last days of his life, Munch shed light on anxiety as an existential problem. This beautifully produced survey of the painter from the Curators at the Munch Museum in Oslo is a rich exploration of his life, his paintings and his graphic works. Both famous and lesser-known paintings are analysed and put into context as well as the extraordinary woodcuts, which so cleverly exploit the grain of the wood and are some of the most accomplished and confident things he did.