The artist, whose work in the West is put on a par with Gauguin and Cezanne, is not very well known in Russia. The genius, who was considered the creator of a new era and painted gloomy pictures of death, suffered from nervous breakdowns, from which he was treated.
In his youth, he said that the day would come when everyone would take off their hats in front of his canvases, as if in a church, but he was still very far from public recognition. “Without my paintings, I am nothing,” Edward Munch once admitted, whose works are now known much more than the author himself.
To understand the original work of the artist, you need to find out how and what he lived, creating masterpieces, "written with the blood of his heart."
Loss of loved ones
In 1863, the future artist was born in Norway, whose work will be called a completely new painting, which exploded the established traditions in art. Edward Munch, whose biography is filled with tragic events that left his mark in his works, has gone down in history as a creator, whose work caused a stormy emotional impact on the viewer.
Edward recalled his childhood as bleak and full of losses. Having lost his mother and beloved sister who died from tuberculosis, the boy tragically took his life path. His recollection of that time is known: “Black angels of madness, illness, death flocked to my cradle and accompanied my whole life.”
The image of the inner world
After school, Munch studies as an engineer, but at some point he realizes that he dreams of only painting. Even the exact date is known - November 8, 1888, it was then that a record appeared in the personal diary of a teenager suffering from fear of the life that he decided to become an artist.
“Often I woke up in a cold sweat and looked around my room to see if I was in hell,” Edward Munch admitted at the end of his life. The paintings of the young painter conveyed his experiences: he did not like “beautiful” images, focusing on what was not visible behind the outer shell of a person.
Portraying people, he made casts from their inner world: "There is no longer any other artist who has squeezed his topic to the last drop, like me."
Gloomy motives in creativity
A series of tragic departures continued - Munch lost his father and younger brother, and his sister died in a mental hospital. This is reflected in the work of the painter - the gloomy motives of loneliness and death are gaining even greater power. Critics noted that the author had an amazing ability to visually display his moods and emotions.
After the losses, Munch considered the main culprit of all the tragedies of God. He renounces religion, seeking for himself a new system of values. Considering the whole world is empty, the artist declares the meaninglessness of human life and assures that only through art can immortality be achieved.
Studying at an art school, Edward Munch, whose paintings are difficult to attribute to one direction, devotedly devotes himself to art. He did not want his works to simply adorn the walls of houses or museums. “My paintings are what I myself experienced, my diary. They gave the meaning of my life ”- shared the most intimate painter.
Exhibition closing
A genius who traveled the world got acquainted with different directions and styles in art. He exhibited his works in galleries, but they caused too much public resonance, and his exhibitions were closed. The masters of the classical school of painting considered strange paintings offensive to view, and Munch himself was called an anarchist. After the announcement of the closing of the exhibition, “ugly” works gain fame, and progressive young people begin to admire scandalous paintings.
Unsettled personal life
Accustomed to loneliness, the young man fled from relations with women, assigning them a fatal role in the fate of all men. Representatives of the fair sex fell in love with a strange young man fascinated by art with burning eyes, but Munch believed that strong feelings would weaken his desire to create.
The artist’s passionate affair with the daughter of a noble trader is known, which ended tragically for both: the obsessive girl, who became a burden for the young man, tried to poison herself, learning from Edward about the separation, and after she was literally returned from the next world, she shot the painter's hand.
Nervous Disruption and Disease Treatment
Having undergone several operations and lost his finger, Munch worried about his creative future. The unsociable artist after this incident begins a real persecution mania. His nerves were losing more and more, and the artist was frustrated by random people. He could even beat those who, in his opinion, spoke unflattering about him. Frequent attacks, accompanied by aggressive actions, lead Munch to a psychiatric hospital, where he was treated with electric shock.
The artist understood that he alone could not cope with alcoholism and depression, and sent for help to specialists. I must say that the disease did not leave him after a long treatment. But Edward accepted it, believing that his work is inextricably linked with mental breakdowns.
Unexpected popularity
After intensive care, Munch is released. “It's not so easy to get out of there. All questions cannot be answered as you like. You need to guess what the doctors expect from you, otherwise you will stay there forever, ”Edward Munch shared his memories. The works of a brilliant artist during the time that he spent in the clinic are becoming popular.
Masters, who became famous overnight, showered the galleries of the world and private collectors with offers. But the “gloomy Norwegian”, as his contemporaries sometimes called him, was in no hurry to part with his offspring. He could not create without seeing his canvases.
Portraits as the transmission of the human soul
The artist Edward Munch scooped all the ideas inside himself, trying to help other people to understand the complexities of life and explain its purpose. After 1900, he creates collections of portraits, becoming the main genre in his work. These were memorable works in which the thin strings of the human soul were studied. The artist did not custom-make portraits of those whom he knew little, and the transfer of only external resemblance did not satisfy him.
Creativity in the last years of life
But the late period of the master’s work is recognized by many critics as the most unsuccessful. Edward Munch, whose works were filled with deep philosophical ideas, but recognized as weak in terms of art, worked hard in his workshop. His style has changed for the worse, and paintings written in rough strokes disappointed his fans. It is known that the author suffered from an eye disease, due to which he subsequently completely stopped working.
Munch died in early 1944, near Oslo, during the German occupation. He did not leave students after his death, because his original work was too personal and subjective.
“Sick Girl”: Farewell to Beloved Sister
“Everything that I did in my work was due to the birth of this picture,” Munch admitted somehow. “Sick Girl” - his earliest work, which made the artist famous. The deep wounds after the death of loved ones in childhood left an indelible mark in the soul of an impressionable boy. He portrayed a sister dying of tuberculosis, and the motives of illness and death often passed through his work.
For forty years, Munch did not let go of the unexpected death of his beloved sister, and he created five versions of this picture, which was severely criticized by the public. A work depicting a girl on her deathbed, recognized as a significant and turning point in the artist's work, caused a scandalous reaction of the public for such a harsh manner of writing and expression of the most forbidden feelings - suffering, pain and despair of a person.
Harassing critics and misunderstanding of the public
Constantly listened to the accusations of depression and formlessness presented to the audience of the work of the unsociable Edward Munch. Pictures with names that emphasize the deep tragedy and constant pain of the author were not accepted by the public, not ready to fall in love with canvases far from realistic art. Critics made insults to the artist and called his creations frank failures.
A talented painter was forced to fight for freedom in his work, daily encountering overt contempt and ridicule of the suffered offspring, conveying a person’s condition, and not his appearance. Munch specially created drawings that weren’t fitted under the standard canons of art, which literally stunned his contemporaries with the truth of life.
Mysterious canvas "Scream"
The most recognizable work of the ingenious master is conveying the real horror of a person, the painting “Scream”. Munch, suffering from fear of open space, portrayed the protagonist, feeling something hostile. Moreover, incredible fear gripped only him, and the two figures behind talk peacefully, not hearing a terrible scream.
Researchers of the work of the Norwegian painter are inclined to believe that this painting was written under the influence of the developed mental illness of Munch. A sexless creature that opened its mouth and clasped its head in its hands so as not to hear terrible screams, was probably inspired by the image of the mummy that the Norwegian saw at the exhibition.
Munch's Nerve Nude
What personifies the strange and gloomy work “Scream”? Munch believed that man in a battle with nature is doomed to defeat. The creature depicted is devoid of a protective shell, and every impact of external forces makes him experience incredible torment. The main character is the creator himself, and his naked nerve reacts to every touch. Munch is protected from a natural cry, and the figure of the depicted hero is a natural reaction of a frightened person fleeing from real or apparent cataclysms.
Evil glory
Initially, the drawing was called "Cry of Nature." It was him, trembling with excitement, that the author felt in 1892 in Nice. It is probably not surprising that the mystical curse of everyone who comes into contact with him is connected with such a gloomy picture. The workers who endured the painting committed suicide due to severe headaches and fell into terrible accidents. A curious visitor touching the canvas with his finger burned alive in his house.
A painting worth more than $ 70 million was repeatedly stolen, but it always returned to the Munch Museum in Oslo. The eerie atmosphere recreated on canvas affects the psyche of the viewer, and this fact is scientifically confirmed.
No one knows if this is a tragic accident that takes away the souls of people, or if a truly mystical picture has evil rock. Be that as it may, but museum visitors are trying to get around it.
"Comfort". Graphics in black and white
An unusual black and white image of two seated naked people against a background of wallpaper was created in 1894 by the still little-known Munch. “Consolation” - so he called his graphic work, realistically conveying the despair and grief of a woman who covered her tear-stained face with her hands. A man gently hugs her shoulder, but his soothing gesture cannot soften the unexpected blow of fate that ruined the serene life of his companion.
Munch's graphics are a separate world in which the author departed from detailed images to generalization. Consolation was one of the first graphic works of the famous Norwegian.
Painting provocation "Madonna"
All his life, the suffering Munk, whose “Madonna” is little similar to the usual classical image, embodied his secret experiences on canvas. He considered a woman a mystery to all men: “Holy and vicious, drug and suffering. The man who drives you crazy. ”
A tragically broken connection with the daughter of a wine merchant left a mark in the soul of a man who believed that female beauty brings pain and danger. The “Madonna” of the painter is devoid of any holiness and purity. An ecstatic woman closed her eyes from fatigue and plunged into her sensations. Her blue-molten hair is loose and as if fraught with terrible danger. The gloomy background of the canvas is alarming and suggestive of some kind of threat to humanity as a whole.
Munch, creating a work in which love is closely connected with the end of life on earth, wanted to convey all the stages that a woman goes through - from conception and birth of a child to death. And the audience considered a rather vulgar picture, in which only the halo gives a resemblance to the canonical image of the Madonna.
Parting: Pain from breaking up
In this work, he applied as many as three painting styles to Edward Munch. “Parting” was written after an unsuccessful experience of the artist’s love relationship, dividing the picture of the picture into the past and present. He examines the inner and outer world of a suffering person, depicted with a gloomy face and holding his heart in his bloody hand. On the right, Munch painted a faceless girl in a light dress. The author emphasizes that the hero who is experiencing a gap is trying to forget the one that caused him so much suffering, and her face is forever erased from his memory.
Right in front of the man is something that looks like a strange plant or creature with two heads. The red substance, which at first looks solid, is inexorably torn in different directions. The work used surrealism, symbolism and modern, conveying the tragedy of parting.
Immortality in canvases
Lonely and hard to converge with people, Edward Munch, whose works testify to his undoubted talent, during his life caused a lot of talk about his work, which was reflected in the contradictory personality of the author. Not wanting to part with the pained canvases and wanted to merge with them together, Munch continues to live in his paintings, which made him immortal.