On the morning of Saturday, January 21st, we all headed to the Munch Museum in Oslo. This beautiful museum opened October 22nd, 2021, and is one of the largest single-artist museums in the world! World-famous painter, Edvard Munch, willed all of his art to the city of Oslo four years prior to his death in 1944. This museum is now the number one place to explore the life and art of Munch. His expansive work is what led the museum to contain 13 floors, each holding 1-2 exhibitions displaying fields of Munch’s work, offering a look into the artist’s life and even showcasing art inspired by and/or related to Munch. Not only did Munch experiment with painting, but he also dabbled in graphic art, sculpting, drawing, and even photo/film. The museum is complete with breath-taking views of Oslo and the fjord on the top floor!
One of the most notable exhibitions is titled Infinite. It showed numerous displays of very real human themes through Munch’s eye. These themes reflected commonalities like loneliness, love, death, and even anxiety.
We found the themes of loneliness and death to be the most impactful. In summary, Munch’s theme of loneliness displays the involuntary solitude that we all inevitably feel as some point that is unavoidable. He shows how we can feel alone by ourselves, but also around others. Mia’s favorite painting rom this collection is pictured below. She noted right away that the background is reminiscent of Munch’s most famous painting, Scream, and that drew her to it right away.
Another notable painting that Isaiah loved shows people in grief, wearing dark clothes in the background while a person who has presumably passed away lies on the bed. In the foreground, one can see a little girl, dressed in bright red making eye contact with the viewer. Her hands cover her cheeks with her mouth wide open (similar to The Scream). Paintings like this (by Munch) revolve around the people who are left behind, with this one, in particular, being experienced through the view of a child. Death definitely came suddenly during Munch’s time, however, this still resonates today as it is still hard to face death and it could be argued that this exact reality is depicted through the painting. We never know how to exactly face death, and neither did Munch.
