Becoming Edvard Munch

"Two potent myths have traditionally defined our understanding of the artist Edvard Munch (1862-1944): he was mentally unstable, as his iconic work The Scream (1893) suggests, and he was radically independent, following his own singular vision. Becoming Edvard Munch: Influence, Anxiety, and Myth persuasively challenges these entrenched perceptions. In this book, Jay A. Clarke demonstrates that Munch was thoroughly in control of his artistic identity, a savvy businessman skilled in responding to the market and shaping popular opinion. Moreover, the author shows that Munch was keenly aware of the art world of his day, adopting motifs, styles, and techniques from a wide variety of sources, including many Scandinavian artists. By presenting Munch's paintings, prints, and drawings in relation to those of European contemporaries, including Harriet Backer, James Ensor, Vincent van Gogh, Max Klinger, Christian Krohg, and Claude Monet, Clarke reveals often surprising connections and influences. This interpretive approach, grounded in Munch's diaries and letters, period criticism, and the artworks themselves, reintroduces Munch as an artist who cultivated myths both visual and personal. Becoming Edvard Munch features beautiful color reproductions of approximately 150 works, including 75 paintings and 75 works on paper by Munch and his peers"--Book jacket.

The biography of the artist who created the most haunting icon of the twentieth century

In Self-Portrait: Between the Clock and the Bed, the elderly Edvard Munch stands like a sentinel in his bedroom/studio surrounded by the works that constitute his artistic legacy. A powerful meditation on art, mortality, and the ravages of time, this haunting painting conjures up the Norwegian master’s entire career. It also calls into question certain long-held myths surrounding Munch—that his work declined in quality after his nervous breakdown in 1908–9, that he was a commercially naive social outsider, and that he had only a limited role in the development of European modernism. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Verdana} The present volume aims to rebut such misconceptions by freshly examining this enigmatic artist. In the preface, the renowned novelist Karl Ove Knausgaard considers Munch as a fellow creative artist and seeks to illuminate the source of his distinctive talent. The four groundbreaking essays that follow present numerous surprising insights on matters ranging from Munch’s radical approach to self-portraiture to his role in promoting his own career. They also reveal that Munch has been an abiding inspiration to fellow painters, both during his lifetime and up to the present; artists as varied as Jasper Johns, Bridget Riley, Asger Jorn, and Georg Baselitz have acknowledged his influence. More than sixty of Munch’s paintings, dating from the beginning of his career in the early 1880s to his death in 1944, are accompanied by a generous selection of comparative illustrations and a chronology of the artist’s life. The result is an intimate, provocative study that casts new light on Munch’s unique oeuvre—an oeuvre that Knausgaard describes as having gone “where only a painting can go, to that which is beyond words, but which is still part of our reality.”

Published to accompany the exhibition held at Museum of Modern Art, New York, 17 February - 8 May 2006.

Illustrated with black and white and colored prints from Edvard Munch. Original pictorial wrappers and color illustrated frontispiece. Published alongside the exhibition of the same name. "This exhibition considers Munch's relevance to a modern world through three interpretive paths." (From the forward) These paths are the technical methods Munch used as a Symbolist printmaker, his reception and exhibitions in North American, and Munch's influence in popular culture. With several essays and a chronology.

The Norwegian painter Edvard Munch produced some of the most intensely evocative images of modern art. Building upon nineteenth century Symbolism and greatly influencing German Expressionism, masterpieces such as ‘The Scream’ have left a lasting impression on the history of art. Munch’s harrowing and unique paintings present a paranoid, troubled world, revealing the importance of art for expressing human experience. Delphi’s Masters of Art Series presents the world’s first digital e-Art books, allowing readers to explore the works of great artists in comprehensive detail. This volume presents Munch’s complete paintings in beautiful detail, with concise introductions, hundreds of high quality images and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 1) * The complete paintings of Edvard Munch — over 1800 paintings, fully indexed and arranged in chronological and alphabetical order * Includes reproductions of rare works * Features a special ‘Highlights’ section, with concise introductions to the masterpieces, giving valuable contextual information * Enlarged ‘Detail’ images, allowing you to explore Munch’s celebrated works in detail, as featured in traditional art books * Hundreds of images in colour – highly recommended for viewing on tablets and smart phones or as a valuable reference tool on more conventional eReaders * Special chronological and alphabetical contents tables for the paintings * Easily locate the paintings you wish to view * Includes a selection of Munch's drawings - explore the artist’s varied works Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting e-Art books CONTENTS: The Highlights FROM MARIDALEN THE SICK CHILD SPRING NIGHT IN SAINT-CLOUD MELANCHOLY EVENING ON KARL JOHAN STREET PUBERTY SELF PORTRAIT WITH A CIGARETTE SUMMER NIGHT PORTRAIT OF HANS JÆGER DEATH IN THE SICKROOM VAMPIRE THE VOICE MADONNA THE DANCE OF LIFE THE SCREAM JEALOUSY GIRLS ON THE BRIDGE PORTRAIT OF WALTER RATHENAU PORTRAIT OF DR. DANIEL JACOBSON THE SUN WORKERS ON THEIR WAY HOME The Paintings THE COMPLETE PAINTINGS DETAILED LIST OF PAINTINGS ALPHABETICAL LIST OF PAINTINGS The Drawings LIST OF DRAWINGS Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting titles or to buy the whole Art series as a Super Set