Munch, the opposite of impressionism.

How much suffering can a person endure? How many "blows of outrageous fate" can you tolerate?

Can we call it childhood?
Edvard Munch was born in Loten in Norway on 12 December 1863. At the age of 5 he lost his mother who died of tuberculosis. A few years later it was one of her sisters who died of tuberculosis at the age of 15.

Edvard's health is not the best and his father's behavior does not help him: suffering from manic-depressive syndrome, he personally takes care of his son's education, precisely because he is often at home due to illness.

The father is consistent with the family climate introduces little Edvard to the literary “horror” dimension by making him study Edgar Allan Poe.

The other sister Laura begins to be afflicted by psychic crises, which will quickly lead her to an asylum. His brother Andreas, on the other hand, gets married and dies immediately afterwards.

The diary of the soul

Nothing to be happy about. In his personal "Diary of the soul" in fact, he writes: "I inherited two of humanity's most terrifying enemies: the heritage of consumption and madness."

With such a departure, it is not surprising that, in addition to numerous illnesses, Munch devotes himself to drinking, until he ends up in an asylum himself for a short period, prey to devastating hallucinations.

Distressing life, distressing pictures
A similar biography explains Edvard Munch's artistic activity. "Death in the sick room", "Vampire", "Odor of death" "Self-portrait with a skeleton arm" etc. these are just a few titles of Munch's works.

The painting that made him famous, obviously after death and after suffering harsh criticism in life, it is "The Scream" (the image of the post is instead "Anxiety").

A figure perhaps borrowed from the image of a mummy found at that time, it even inspired one of the emoji faces (screamingfear). One of the versions (Munch always painted many versions of his paintings) sold for $ 120 million a few years ago.

From Munch's diary we read:

“I was walking along the street with two friends when the sun went down, the sky suddenly turned blood red. I stopped, leaned dead tired against a fence. On the blue-black fjord and the city were blood and tongues of fire. My friends kept walking and I was still trembling with fear ... And I felt that a great endless scream pervaded nature. "

Impressionism and expressionism

A step beyond the technical and formal analyzes of Munch's painting, an important fact is the overturning of the very concept of painting.

The Impressionists wanted to resume reality, the impression of what we see and what surrounds us, what is "outside us". Munch is the first stone of "Expressionism". Express and paint what is "inside us", our emotions, our inner life.

Again Munch writes:

"In general, art arises from the individual's desire to reveal himself to the other. I don't believe in an art that is not born of a force, driven by the desire of a being to open his heart. Every form of art, literature, music must be born in the blood of our heart. Art is the blood of our heart "

Quiet parenthesis with ardent maidens

However, acquiring a certain fame he managed to achieve a certain economic tranquility. He bought a 45-hectare property near Oslo and painted pictures celebrating rural life.

His fame attracted a group of "ardent maidens", which today we would call "fans", who he portrayed in various artistic nudes. The gossip was activated immediately, describing something else.

The ultimate fear

However, the creative drive had run out. The advent of Nazism had time to give him one last suffering: the immediate removal of the 82 works exhibited in German museums. Degenerate art to be removed together with those of Picasso, Klee, Matisse etc.

His fears increased when the Nazis occupied Norway. He lived eighty years and died in January 1944. Shortly before the liberation from the Germans.

"Flowers will grow from my rotting body and I will be inside them: this is eternity"