ZGR CEM BRLER LP3

Style/Form: Expressionism
Name of Artist: Edvard Munch
Edward Munch was a Norwegian expressionist
painter. He was born in December 12 1863 in
Norway. He had a terrible childhood: He left
both his mother and sister from tuberculosis.
He enters a technical college to become an
engineer but he leaves it 1 year later in 1880 to
become a painter. He His best-known paintings
are the Scream, Vampire, Madonna and
Death in the Sickroom. On January 23 when he
was 80 years old he died in his home peacefully.
He bequeaths thousands of prints paintings and
drawings to the city of Oslo.
Title of Artwork: The Scream
Date (when it was made): 1893
Media: Oil, tempera, and pastel on cardboard

http://dreamstudies.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/thescream.jpg
In this artwork I can see a person in front of the picture. This person head is like a skull and
he/she screams. Her/his hands are on his/her cheeks. Besides that he/she wears a black cloth and there
is a bracelet on his/her wrist. I can see a wooden bridge which colored in lots of color such as brown
black orange and red. Moreover I can see a sky. Artist generally used orange, white and red colors but we
can see also turquoise in the air. I can see a river and its colors are black, dark blue and light blue and I
see a beach. Furthermore I can see 2 people who dressed black dress. In this picture Edward Munch
used different elements of art and design such as it is hard to see geometrical shapes. He always used
organic shapes. Besides that nearly all of the lines are curved. I can only see straight lines on the
bridges handles. It is hard to understand where the rivers limits are. Generally we cant talk about the
texture but he used wood texture on the bridge very well. The artist didnt use value much. In the shy
and the river some transitions in same colors different tones are obvious. He also used a form in the
bridge. The focal point of this painting is the air. It is the focal because when I first look at the picture
I saw the air instead of the screaming person even the name of his painting is The Scream. Artist used
very bright colors while he was painting the air and also orange is the contrast of the blue thats why the
focal point is the air. It is not the screaming people because his/her skin color and bridges colors are
similar and his/her head disappears.
I think this painting has more than one mood and these are: depressing, chaotic, frightening and
aggressing. First of all this painting is chaotic because air is red-orange this means sun is downing and
besides that there is a river and beach so this place has to be a very peaceful maybe the further people
are lovers and I think there are happiness tranquility and even there is a love in the negative space of
this painting. Contrarily there is a person in the positive space of the painting and he/she screams. It
ruins the harmony and thats why I think this painting is really chaotic. Besides that it is frightening to
see this person in the positive space. I think this person is the symbol of the chaos. The screaming
person makes this painting scary and he/she doesnt look like a normal person because his/her heads
shape isnt look like a normal humans head. Especially the chin part besides she/he doesnt have any
eyelash or eyebrows. Thats why this person looks like horror film monster rather than a person and
he/she looks like her/his spirit is gone. Also he/she looks like terrified. The thing that makes him/her
terrified should be in the left bottom of the painting because he/she looks directly to there. I think
Edward Munch made this painting to express his inner feelings and I think he wanted to use this person
to express his feelings because he wants to show that the thing that scared this sexless person can
frighten everyone and this thing can only be a war! Thats why this man is looking very terrible and this
quote can explain why he painted the Scream: "I was walking along a path with two friends - the sun was
setting - suddenly the sky turned blood red - I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence -
there was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city - my friends walked on, and I
stood there trembling with anxiety - and I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature."
(EdvardMunch.Info) According to this quote sky is red because it is the symbol of blood. When I first
read this I thought he wanted to express the emotions behind the war. However according to the same
web page sky was red because of the different reason: In 2003, astronomers claimed to have identified
the time that the painting depicted. The eruption of Krakatoa in 1883 caused unusually intense sunsets
throughout Europe in the winter of 1883-4, which Munch captured in his picture. (EdvardMunch.Info)
Again according to the same web page: In 1978, the renowned Munch scholar Robert Rosenblum
suggested that the strange, sexless creature in the foreground of the painting was probably inspired by
a Peruvian mummy which Munch could have seen at the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris. This mummy,
which was crouching in fetal position with its hands alongside its face, also struck the imagination of
Munch's friend Paul Gauguin: it stood model for the central figure in his painting Human misery (Grape
harvest at Arles) and for the old woman at the left in his painting Where Do We Come From? What Are
We? Where Are We Going?. More recently, an Italian anthropologist speculated that Munch might have
seen a mummy in Florence's Museum of Natural History which bears an even more striking resemblance
to the painting. (EdvardMunch.Info)

I think artist used the technique and materials effectively. His style was expressionism and
thats why his target was to express his personal mood so he didnt aim to draw the best-painting and
actually he did a very great job without trying to draw the best. Edvard Munch reflected more than one
idea in this painting but the observer can easily understand what he wanted to express. Artist also used
images very clever because he didnt use them to seem beautiful Images are simple basic drawings but
the under meaning is very complex and get succeed in this way. Thus I can say that it is very expressive.
I believe that this painting is absolutely unique and it so unique that famous and if we consider this
painting with the other paintings we can say that it is different than the others because in other
paintings he generally drew real humans. Also the idea is unique because in other paintings he didnt
express his emotions directly but in this painting we can clearly see that he wants to scream/ he heard
the scream. I cant say that the Scream painting is also original in use of materials because Edvard
Munch uses oil and tempera.
I chose to write about this artwork because I liked it. I liked it because in this painting emotions
expressed very ably. In my opinion this is an interesting artwork because this painting is not totally about
bad emotions also artist express good moods such as love. Also it is interesting because artist impressed
from totally different cases and he finds a way to connect them. My overall opinion and judgement of
this work is awesome because I think this painting reflects more than one idea and it does very well.

Bibliography
Roman Jaster/ The Dance of Life/ Biography of Edvard Munch/ http://romanjaster.com/edvard-
munch/index1.htm/ 2005 / Web/ 02/05/2010
Rene Carney/ EdvardMunchInfo/ The Scream/ http://www.edvardmunch.info/edvard-munch/the-
scream.asp / 2006 Web/ 02/05/2010