The Scream

[andy hughes]

Since the theft of this paitning has brought 'The Scream' to the forefront of the news again, does anyone else see the painting in the same way I see it - the figure in the foreground is not issuing 'The Scream', but trying to stop himself from hearing The Scream which, aoccrding to Munch, is being made by some natrual force?

[Jeanalesi]

That's what I've always been taught, however I do feel the representation of nautre appears neither in distress or screaming. While not tranquil it gives little impression of the need to cover one's ears. But to answer your question, yes I do see it in the same way.

[pigface]

I hear what you are saying. However, I get the impression that the scream is coming from within his own head (not his mouth).

[pigface]

...and he is trying not to hear it

[fratergarth]

The scream has been erroneously opinionized by art historians who have an anti-psychic opinion about it. It is trying to shut out the senses as a psychic state is happening, that psychic state if not hearing becomes awakened, the extrasensory is the state depiced by Munch.

[pinus]

quote from http://www.museumsnett.no/nasjonalgalleriet/munch/eng/innhol d/ngm00939.html start quote The first time Munch described the experience which gave rise to this painting was in Nice, writing in his literary diary. The entry for 22 January 1892 reads: "I was walking along the road with two friends. The sun was setting. I felt a breath of melancholy - Suddenly the sky turned blood-red. I stopped, and leaned against the railing, deathly tired - looking out across the flaming clouds that hung like blood and a sword over the blue-black fjord and town. My friends walked on - I stood there, trembling with fear. And I sensed a great, infinite scream pass through nature." end quote

[bernardo]

I once read a theory that it was inspired by the sight of a bald woman whose wig suddenly flew off in a gust of wind.

Also, I'm not sure if "The Scream" is the actual title given by Munch, or is it an appellation attributed by extraneous personnel?

[fratergarth]

There was a wood cut and a painting the painting was called the Scream the Woodcut was Titled "The Cry".

[Brugel]

The Norwegian title for the painting is "Skrik" and this has sometimes been translated as "The Shriek". Incidentally, has anyone ever seen any of Munch's other paintings? Many of them are wonderful- "The Dance of Life", "Jealousy", "Vampire", "Winter Night" and so on. He is a very underrated artist.

[beale]

I think you're quite right, I saw on a programme once that Munch located 'The Scream' near a lunatic asylum.

[TommyC]

Spot on, Brugel...!! "Evening in Karl Johann Street, Oslo" is another wonderful Munch painting and my personal favourite, and was once used as the cover for a Penguin edition of a novel by Joseph Conrad - dealing, as both works did, with themes of social discontent, urban alienation, and insecurity. Munch's genius was donkeys years ahead of his late nineteenth-century time. He should have been knighted (or whatever was the Norwegian equivalent).