Screaming for Munch in Oslo, Oslo, Norway

In 2012, Edvard Munch’s 1895 pastel, “The Scream” sold for a record price of just under $120 million at Sotheby’s auction house in New York City. This was then the most expensive piece of art ever sold at an auction, sealing Munch’s reputation as one of the most influential painters. What makes Munch’s paintings so engaging?

There is an infinite number of ways to experience artwork and this is particularly relevant to the paintings of Edvard Munch (1863-1944): as the most famous member of the symbolism movement of the 1890’s, Norway’s most famous artist’s goal is to express the ideas that lay concealed behind the visible world. As such, a whole narrative can be created from these undulating lines and palettes full of contrasts, from these characters often looking at you from the canvas, from these mysterious and often very desperate images with no clear solutions. “I do not paint what I see, but what I saw” once said the painter whose sicknesses and personal tragedies had been central to his themes.

Oslo is where to explore the world of Munch. The artist is so celebrated in the Norwegian capital that a brand new museum is under construction next to the emblematic iceberg-like Opera House on the Oslo fjord. The most famous canvases of the prolific painter, or his children as he liked to refer to them, will be gathered there in a couple of years. For now, a specific room of the National Gallery hosts The Scream and the present-day Munch Museum showcases other versions of this famous canvas along with some of his most famous works. The accent is put on the viewer’s own interpretation with plenty of room to sit to observe the canvases. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).