On January 18th, our class had the opportunity to visit the Munch Museet (Museum) off of the Oslo fjord to see the art, greater works, and the influence Edvard Munch [“Muhnch”] had on Nordic and European art between the 1880s and 1950s. This era was a time when artists strived to portray the modern world and modern themes; where artists used colors freely to portray their inner lives and societal and political conditions more vividly than before.
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- “Edvard Munch’s art of the 1890s can be seen in the light of a movement in art and literature which was concerned with people’s ‘life of the soul’. Many artists at the time developed a symbolic visual language in order to represent the inner life of humanity. Dreams, emotions, desires, and unconscious forces were common themes. In line with current developments in modern psychology, these artists were searching for a new way of understanding human existence”. – Entryway Introduction.
This museum can be seen from around Oslo, comprising 13 floors, the majority of which are dedicated to Munch’s nearly 30,000 artworks given to the city of Oslo. The museum was originally established in 1963 to house the large collection of Munch and his close friend and artist, Rolf E. Stenersen, whose art is largely inspired by Munch’s and their artistic era. In 2021, the city’s national budget funded the present-day Munch Museet. See below.
Many students visiting the museum, including myself, knew Munch from his iconic painting, The Scream, but had not fully understood the full scope of his artistic work and his influence on art and culture. In beginning to learn more about Munch and his legacy, we learned about his upbringing and who he is as a person and an artist.
The exhibit “Ekely” (the name of the former plant nursery, turned home where Munch created most of his work) was an interactive space mirroring rooms similar to where Munch would have lived and created. Ekely was purchased in 1866 and inhabited until 1944, located on the outskirts of Oslo. The natural environment of Ekely inspired a lot of the scientific themes we see in the following exhibit, “Monumental”. Ekely features personal pieces of Munch’s, including palettes, easels, paint tubes, and various family heirlooms. It also presented a lot of the history and story of his life, informing his artistic education and inspiration. Such as, Munch was a very sickly child and thus staying home from school, had a lot of time to paint, draw, and create. At 17, he wrote in his diary, “It is my decision now to become a painter”. He was shaped by a creative, yet turbulent, household and attended the Royal School of Art and Design in Kristiana (now today’s Oslo) and promptly got a scholarship for a year of stay for art in France. The death of Munch’s father while in France inspired a personal and profound take on his work, encouraging his focus on capturing the essence of the human soul. Myself and my peers wandered the interactive room, piecing together the puzzle of Munch’s art and legacy amongst sounds and visuals.
Next, the “Monumental” gallery featured Munch’s biggest, most ambitious paintings. Such as The Sun, The Researchers, and The Human Machine. These works were created for the University of Oslo’s Ceremonial Hall (“Aula”) in 1911. Munch hoped in their creation that, “Decorations could make up an entire, independent world of ideas” about the overarching natural and scientific themes in the art (inspired by his home in Ekely). We stood in the center of this massive room, turning in our spots to admire the impressively large pieces. A peer commented how they look somewhat simple from afar, but the closer you get, you see how many small and intricate components fit together.
One piece in particular, The Sun, stands out. The Sun is meant to depict a unifying energy force among all living things and a reminder that everything is connected. Munch believed the past and the future, humans and nature, religion and science, and more – are all connected and embodied such deep connectedness in this piece. See below.
The main feature of the Munch Museum houses The Scream and other iconic works and themes in Munch’s collection. The exhibit emphasizes how our understanding of Munch is evolving and changing with society and what themes or questions are important today. There is room for many perspectives and narratives in interpreting his work, as his art is described as “infinite”. The exhibit is divided into twelve themes: Alone, To Die, The Scream, Love, Gender, Outdoors, Naked, Others, Oneself (portraits), In Motion, On The Surface, and Variations.
Examples of themes:
- Alone: Munch believed an essential part of creating was being alone, which is a part of life.
- Naked: “For Munch, the body was interesting just as it was – not as an ideal, but something in a state of perpetual transformation”.
- Love: Munch believed love is full of contrasts, which need to co-exist. Love is a cycle of passion and pain, desire and loss, infatuation and jealousy. Love is tender and painful at once, in Munch’s work.
- Oneself: A self-portrait at the time was not only meant to capture the person but the artist. As Munch got older, his self-portraits became increasingly naked, representing his openness and freedom from vanity.
- Gender: While depictions of men and women were not ambiguous, but binary, such depictions captured humanity and gendered perspectives at the time. Which, in this era, there were a lot of public discussions emerging about equality and freedom of love and gender. New understandings of gender were emerging. See the depiction of Adam and Eve below, 3rd picture.
- The Scream: There are three versions of The Scream displayed in the museum, shown on a rotation to best preserve the work. There is a painting, a drawing, and a print – the painting being the colorful piece we most often recall. The imagery likely originated on an evening walk with friends in 1891, by the Oslo fjord. Munch writes in his diary about the walk, and how he stopped at one point and felt, “a vast infinite scream passing through nature”. Many members of our group stayed in the exhibit, to watch the different versions of The Scream switch out, every half hour.
At the end of the day, over half of our class went to Oslo’s Underground Golf, to break into small teams and play the course together. Experiences like this have served as great bonding and team-building opportunities, and shown us a greater cultural scope in Oslo. Such as, we took note of how many presumably corporate adults were at Underground Golf, likely doing the same as we were, building community over mini golf! The day had been filled with history, culture, art, and fun. January 18th made up one of many great days, comprising many memories and experiences during our stay in Oslo, Norway.
