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4 October 2013 – 12 January 2014
Love, pain and death, passion, loneliness and sorrow: the entire oeuvre of Edvard Munch (1863 – 1944) revolves around the fundamental experiences of human existence. Powerfully and unflinchingly, Munch explores the feelings of hope and despair, transience and disappearance that define the life of modern human beings. Munch is one of the undisputed precursors of the Expressionist currents that began to shape European painting at the start of the 20th century. The formal boldness of his imagery and the radicalism of his themes inspire contemporary artists to this day.
Munch’s graphic output is not a by-product but rather a central component of his oeuvre – from the earliest etchings dating from 1894 to the final lithographs created just before his death in early 1944. His masterpieces in printed form include many elaborations of his worldfamous subjects: here are grand, large-format colour lithographs, etchings and woodcuts with many hand-coloured plates and experiments in printing on coloured paper. It is only in these works that the rich cosmos of Munch’s unique creation develops fully. The graphic works combine an extraordinarily rich and subtle colour palette with rigorous reduction, often condensing the expressive power of his central symbolist allegories in a way that is more compelling than his paintings; they include ‘The Scream,’ ‘Madonna,’ ‘Melancholy,’ ‘The Sin,’ and many others besides.
The exhibition comprises almost 200 outstanding prints of international origin. It is accompanied by a comprehensive catalogue edited by Gerd Woll, publisher of the catalogues raisonnés of Edvard Munch’s works and former senior curator of The Munch Museum in Oslo.
Supported by
and the Truus and Gerrit van Riemsdijk Foundation.
