| So it was that the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch in 1895 (just before he turned thirty years old) drew the image of the scream now at the Museum of Modern Art through April 29, 2013. He drew it with pastels on a sheet of paper mounted on cardboard. It measures 32 by 23 ¼ inches. He housed it in a gilded frame bearing a plaque with a text hand-lettered in red paint, signed”E.M.” But what an image it is. Perhaps it is one of the most famous images in an age when the images of art majestically enhanced the cultural scene. Here we have the depiction of a hairless figure on a bridge under a yellow-orange sky whose deep sorrow manifests itself in a scream revealed by her open mouth, eyes opened wide, and with her hands covering her ears. Here is a scream that is as personal as it is universal. |
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By Harriet Zinnes
So it was that the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch in 1895 (just before he turned thirty years old) drew the image of The Scream now at the Museum of Modern Art through April 29, 2013. He drew it with pastels on a sheet of paper mounted on cardboard. It measures 32 by 23 ¼ inches. He housed it in a gilded frame bearing a plaque with a text hand-lettered in red paint, signed”E.M.” But what an image it is. Perhaps it is one of the most famous images in an age when the images of art majestically enhanced the cultural scene. Here we have the depiction of a hairless figure on a bridge under a yellow-orange sky whose deep sorrow manifests itself in a scream revealed by her open mouth, eyes opened wide, and with her hands covering her ears. Here is a scream that is as personal as it is universal. It is an icon perhaps of anyone who sees, who observes, who suffers deep loss. That two men in the background unaware of the presence of an agonizing distress only heighten the horror of the scream, a scream which some critics seem to see a kind of melancholy anticipating the desperation of the screaming figure.
Somehow one tends to ignore other works in the show. The Scream lingers in the mind.
Edvard Munch, Self-portrait. Lithograph, 1895.
