Munch and Expressionism

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the life of the German painter Edvard Munch and his influence on German Expressionism. It analyzes how the death and disease that is so much part of Edvard Munch's art was a natural consequence of the time in which he lived and the painful circumstances of his personal life. It shows how he was able to take this pain and grief and synthesize it into art and revolutionized the way visual arts were perceived. Not satisfied with the range that canvas and oil gave him, Munch turned to more innovative technique in an effort to create art that could be reproduced so he carved wood blocks and working closely with printers developed lithographic techniques that changed the way art is made.

From the Paper:

"Like the paintings of the Impressionists -- especially the Post Impressionists -- Munch used tremendously bold strokes and very aggressively attacked the canvas, often scratching and etching the dry paint and applying layer after layer of thick paint in unnatural colors. Filmmaker Peter Watkins in a docu-drama film on the life of Munch does an amazing job of catching this process on film. (Watkins online) The often-sickly Munch, attacked the canvas with the same sort of physical intensity as the more robust Gaugain but of course for different effect."

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