Munch

Edvard Munch and "The Scream"

Edvard Munch

"The Scream" is as iconic as the "Mona Lisa" and it speaks to us on many levels. Most have read the quote by Munch about this painting, "I could feel nature screaming" and contribute it to all the anguish the artist had to overcome in his own life. At a young age, he watched his mother and his sister both die of tuberculosis. Munch used painting as a form of therapy for dealing with the trauma in his life. Long before there were terms like art therapy, Munch was using art to express feelings he could not put into words. 

Edvard was ahead of his time in many ways. Historians call this an iconic image because it speaks to every one of us on many levels. One small part of this painting I like to focus on when I talk about this painting in art history lectures and that is the blurred factory in the back that seems to be spewing smoke into the sky. Edvard talked about the sky being blood red on the particular night that he was inspired to paint "The Scream."

 This particular version of "The Scream" was painted in 1893 which falls right in the middle of the industrial revolution. This is a time when modern inventions brought all kinds of luxuries into the western home but it also brought slums, child labor and pollution. People were becoming aware that the air quality around them had deteriorated. They were questioning the technology and where it had brought them as a society. Was Munch feeling this when he said he could "feel nature screaming" as he painted this symbolic character in the foreground?

Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" was first published in 1818 and it addressed the fear society was having with all the new technologies. They questioned whether these inventions were controlling the human. What consequences did these new luxuries bring us? Could science and inventions get so out of control that machines might be able to take over? Were we becoming too dependent on our new machines?

Have you ever realized that the "Terminator" movies are based on the same theme as Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein"? We are now in the beginning of the Digital Revolution. Many of the problems facing our society today were addressed in the industrial revolution. The 'Great Depression' followed the industrial revolution. Should we reflect more on that famous quote "Those who fail to learn from history are destined to repeat it?"