Edvard Munch's Colorful Journey Through Death, Love, and Sex

Born in 1863 in Loten, Norway, Munch didn’t have an easy life. His childhood was marked by the tragic death of his mother and sister, and he constantly suffered from poor health and later, alcoholism and mental disorders, due to other traumas and personal issues.

His artistic talent manifested while he was still a child, and despite his troubled life, he visited and lived in many European cities where he was influenced, inspired by, and developed various artistic techniques and styles. 

Among others, Paris, Kristiania (today Oslo), and Berlin were especially important milestones in Munch’s intellectual and artistic formation. The artistic and literary group of The Kristiania Bohème, which included the anarchic writer Hans Jæger and the painter Christian Krohg, influenced him dramatically. They were supporters of free sexuality, critics of religion, gender, and class prejudices, and their members’ thoughts contributed to shaping many of Munch’s progressive and modern ideas.

Munch constructed his talent and art by putting together a multitude of pieces “stolen” from artists, playwrights, writers, psychoanalysts, and philosophers, inspiring future Expressionist artists of all media types, not just painters.

As prolific as he was innovative, indifferent to the initial bad reviews from critics, during his life, Munch made paintings on canvas, lithographs, xylographs, photos, and other artworks realized by combinations of different techniques, such as oil on canvas and crayons, or watercolor and pencil. He drew on canvas, cardboard, paper, and wood, constantly experimenting with techniques and styles.

Upon his death, the artist donated all of his works to the Oslo Museum. Today, it has the largest collection of Munch’s pieces. Through Munch: Inner Fire, visitors can now view some of Munch’s masterpieces and get wrapped up in the swirling emotions as they wander through the exhibition.

Laura Munch’s empty and absent stillness in “Melancholy,” or the restlessness and anxiety arising from the piercing gaze of Inger, Munch’s sister, in “Death in the Sickroom,” are only some examples of the displayed artworks at Inner Fire where the viewer is drawn and then trapped in rooms soaked in solitude and mournful agony, from which there is no hiding.

Within this exhibition, there is also a lithographic version of world famous “The Scream.” It is hung separate from the other canvases, as the drawn figure appears isolated in his silent agony, made real and deafening by a river of running black lines.

One never fails to be amazed and shocked by how Munch was able to externalize his own inner demons, with their burden of sorrow, pain, and obsessions, translating them into combinations of colors upon grotesque or unidentified faces, distressing rooms, melancholy shapes, and how all of that is perfectly perceived by the visitor.

Yet, Edvard Munch: Inner Fire is not only a revelry amongst the demons’ author. It is, in fact, a complete journey through the passions that overwhelmed him in life. The exhibition traces the artist through his nightmares and anguish, tormenting love and passions, until the period when he finally reached inner peace after his hospitalization due to a severe nervous breakdown, and his subsequent move to a countryside location. 

One room at Inner Fire is dedicated to his troubled relationship with Tulla Larsen and another one to Munch’s numerous self-portraits. One section shows the canvases he made once he was finally healed, rustic scenarios peacefully infused with brighter colors— works perhaps not so well-known to most. 

The exhibition in Milan is an enjoyable experience, where even visitors who don’t know the artist can easily learn about his life and his unique way of transposing emotions through contrasting colors. At the very beginning, a video provides an overview of who he was and the meaning of his art, information that is enriched as one moves through the exhibit, reading the accurate descriptions of his masterpieces, the story of his life, the way he used to create his art or mix colors, and what he tried to communicate with them.

In this way, room after room, we learn that for all his life, Munch continued painting what he felt, screaming through the canvas in the colors of all his inner feelings, emotions, and obsessions.

If in the first part of the exhibit the gloomiest paintings, enlightened by a direct light, resemble islands floating in a dark space, further along, the works made during different phases of Munch’s life, or the ones grouped in specific topics, are highlighted using more relaxed and even joyful lighting and wall colors.

For example, the controversial delicacy of “Vampire,” in its majestic 1895 version, other depictions of hugs and kisses between lovers, solemn portraits and eternal portrayals of intimate love, most of which would have converged later in the “Frieze of Life,” are only some of the works that are possible to explore in this colorful journey among Munch’s predominant themes of death, love, sex, fear, and the figure of the woman.

Between unidentified faces and figures that convey a storm of violent and touching emotions, peaceful landscapes or melancholic portraits, the artist’s sensibility is revealed to the public with colors often not true to reality, according to the fact that Munch often used to paint what he saw and what he remembered, using a palette that could symbolically express a human’s deepest emotions.

Even if some of the rooms aren’t so big, the supervised access ensures a good experience as the layout helps to prevent overcrowding, such as in the particularly suggestive room called “The Torment of the Soul” where there is an interesting video installation. Here, on a wall characterized by high relief, curves, and cavities, some of Munch’s masterpieces are shown, accompanied by a play of lights, animated special effects, and a soundtrack.

The video, distorted by the wall’s unevenness, is also reflected by mirrors that cover the rest of the walls, so the visitor finds himself surrounded by the colorful emotions that seem to flow impetuously from the paintings themselves.

The exhibition is a must see— a particularly unique chance to see in Italy, for sure, in the core of Milan— as a large collection of artworks from one of the most famous contemporary artists, and curated by Patricia G. Berman, one of Munch’s greatest researchers. If you are visiting the capital of design, definitely give yourself two hours and take a journey into the expressions of Munch’s restless soul.