Expressionism

This week we studied the Norwegian Expressionist, Edvard Munch (1863-1944). Munch is famous not just for works full of heartbreak and angst, but for his theatrical style- he didn't want his painting to be a painting, like the abstract expressionists, nor to be a window on another world like classical and romantic painters. He wanted you, the viewer, to be part of the scene. More often than not, he made his painting s seem as if you had accidently stumbled upon something that you weren't actually meant to see. This can be disturbing. It can make you feel as if you are an attacker at worst and at best a voyer.

Of course, you probably know his most famous work, the Scream (above). So do art thieves, it has been stolen twice.

This is called "Ashes," students speculated that the couple in the painting just broke up.
This is called "Dead Mother." Depressing. Munch lost his mom and his sister to teburculosis. He suffered numerous nervous breakdowns and spent his share of time in mental institutions. Perhaps this is why Hitler daclared his work "degenerate" and had much of it destroyed.

These are both self portraits. I think the one below makes him look like a murderer who just got caught in the act.