Edvard Munch at MOMA
Catch it if you can, it's there till May I was told. I went today, got in free because a friend works there, and went up to the 6th floor and walked around and around for an hour, until meeting my friend for lunch.
Edvard Munch painted for some fifty years, and seeing all his talents, the range of his work, with similarities, in some of it, to the colors of Matisse, or the simplicities of Rousseau or Gaugin, or the techniques of Picasso, one could only marvel. But the greatest marvel is to see the purely Munch--the self-portraits, over the years, the studies of Melancholy and Angst, the fine dignified, pained canvases, the brilliant use of dark colors, the emotions and the passions, his love of women, of men, of children.
One is struck by his lonliness...one felt his repeated self-portraits were in part because he just happened to be the most convenient person to paint. He was always there, and why not? He didn't pity his lonliness, he capitalized on it. He accepted it.
He also painted some famous people, a stunning full length Nietsche, a Strindberg, are two I remember.
His most famous work, of course, is "The Scream." While two were stolen and not yet recovered, two studies--virtually the same work, though smaller--are exhibited. There are many works, however, that have the same flavor, some color streaks or moods or scenes on that bridge, that remind you directly.
Many of his figures are alien-like, you know, those bald, skewed heads with big eyes. Golgatha is Jesus on the Cross with many leering faces all around the execution scene...
Some of his work was startlingly realistic, especially some self-portraits, with clear straight eyes, and his later works, up until 1940, showing his older, deteriorating physical frame.
The museum features perhaps 200 works, sixty percent, I was told, of the Munch exhibit on loan from Norway.
Edvard Munch painted for some fifty years, and seeing all his talents, the range of his work, with similarities, in some of it, to the colors of Matisse, or the simplicities of Rousseau or Gaugin, or the techniques of Picasso, one could only marvel. But the greatest marvel is to see the purely Munch--the self-portraits, over the years, the studies of Melancholy and Angst, the fine dignified, pained canvases, the brilliant use of dark colors, the emotions and the passions, his love of women, of men, of children.
One is struck by his lonliness...one felt his repeated self-portraits were in part because he just happened to be the most convenient person to paint. He was always there, and why not? He didn't pity his lonliness, he capitalized on it. He accepted it.
He also painted some famous people, a stunning full length Nietsche, a Strindberg, are two I remember.
His most famous work, of course, is "The Scream." While two were stolen and not yet recovered, two studies--virtually the same work, though smaller--are exhibited. There are many works, however, that have the same flavor, some color streaks or moods or scenes on that bridge, that remind you directly.
Many of his figures are alien-like, you know, those bald, skewed heads with big eyes. Golgatha is Jesus on the Cross with many leering faces all around the execution scene...
Some of his work was startlingly realistic, especially some self-portraits, with clear straight eyes, and his later works, up until 1940, showing his older, deteriorating physical frame.
The museum features perhaps 200 works, sixty percent, I was told, of the Munch exhibit on loan from Norway.