Volume 23, Number 21 & 22 · January 20, 1977
Edvard Munch: Self-Portraitist (Notes from a Diary)
By Robert Craft
WORKS DISCUSSED IN THIS ARTICLE
Edvard Munch
by Thomas Messer
Abrams, 166 pp., $22.50
Edvard Munch: The Scream
by Reinhold Heller
Viking, 128 pp., $7.50
Munch
by Jean Selz, translated by Eileen Hennessy
Crown, 32 pp., $4.95
The Graphic Art of Edvard Munch
by Werner Timm, translated by Ruth Michaelis-Jena, by Patrick Murray
New York Graphic Society, 324 pp., $17.50
Edvard Munch
catalogue of the Arts Council of Great Britain, with forewords by Sir Kenneth Clark, by Knut Berg
72 (48 pages of plates) pp., unpriced
Edvard Munch
a film directed by Peter Watkins
December 1, 1975. Oslo. From my hotel room the pedestrians in Karl Johansgate seem to be walking as they do in a Munch picture, at approximately the same pace and without glancing to left or right, but whether they are also silent and grim-looking is impossible to tell in the midnight-dark of mid-morning. I am constantly being struck by scenes that remind me of Munch vignettes, and my discovery of the realistic element in this 'subjective' painter is expanding in several directions. Thus the sightless windows in an old house seem to resemble those in The Red Vine, the sky to evoke the palette of the early Starry Night, and the blank expressions to recall some of Munch's people, though I have yet to see one of his entirely featureless faces—like that of a hold-up man, or guerrilla, with a stocking over the head. Munch-like, too, is the unhopeful sky, which in early afternoon turns a deepening blue, with a squint of cold pink just before the abrupt 'lights out.' An acquaintance with the artist's physical world, and with its psychological effects on the inhabitants, must broaden the understanding of his work, yet Munch is more than a regional painter, the best of his creations being universal by virtue of both themes and artistic mastery.
Review, 3820 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |