A Mystery of a Woman

"Woman in her many-sidedness is a mystery to man.

Woman at one and the same time is a saint, a whore, and an unhappy person abandoned" . Edvard Munch

The search of this "higher rhythm of nature" is a primary concern of Munch's art. Sexuality, fertility and death are linked together in a constellation through which female identity is constructed. Most of Munch’s depictions of women represent some aspects of female sexuality.

Puberty (1984)

In one of his most famous paintings “Puberty”a naked adolescent girl sits on the edge of the bed staring nervously and fixedly at the viewer. Her arms are crossed in front of her getinal area, as if to protect and block it from view, but in reality she is calling attention to the image’s central theme: emerging female sexuality. The bed and especially the large, insistently phallic shadow she casts on the wall to her left reinforce the painting’s primary message.
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The Woman in Three Stages (1894)

The differing aspects of the female psyche are clearly expressed in his painting Woman in Three Stages (c. 1894), which can be seen as an important point of origin for The Dance of Life. The similarities between the two paintings are obvious. In Woman in Three Stages Munch also displays three women of different ages. A virgin figure with her "innocent phantasies of adolescent" gazes out to the sea. In the middle stands a physical mature woman, naked with her legs spread, who looks directly at the viewer. Her "seductive and provocative gaze is of such irresistible attraction that it guarantees the eternity of the human race". On the right side is a darkly dressed woman, hardly visible, with a pale face that bears witness to death.

Madonna (1894-5)

"Madonna" is one of my favourite paintings by Munch. He himself wrote:

"The pause during which the entire world stopes in its path. Moonlight glides over your face filled with all the earth’s beauty and pain. Your lips, as crimson as a ripe fruit, are half open as if to express pain. A corpse's smile. Here life and death shake hands. The chain that links thousands of past generations to the thousands to come has been meshed."

This painting was also called "Loving Woman" by Munch. This indicates that the painting carries both, religious and erotic content. The red "halo" emphasizes the connection with the Madonna. But the figure is also characterized by her abandonment to the sublime moment of love. "Madonna" depicts a woman seductively posed, or perhaps engaged in the sexual act: her arms urpised, her hips shift to one side, and her eyes closed in expressive reverie. Her frontal position forces the participation of the viewer, maybe as a sexual partner. The beautiful woman in the picture is a saint and a whore at the same time- sharing her body with the love one.

Madonna (Litograph, 1895-1902)

The Battle called Love

Comparing The Dance of Life to other paintings of the Frieze of Life, one comes to notice that this painting also deals with, as Munch put it,

"the battle between man and woman that is called love".

Indeed, The Dance of Life seems to summarize works like Eye in Eye (c. 1894), The Kiss (c. 1897), Separation (c. 1896) and Jealousy (c. 1895). In a story like way, these paintings display the process of love,

"that moves from initial flirtations, to the ecstasies of physical love consummation, then to the anxieties of jealousy and rejection".

Thus, the young and innocent girl in white (from The Dance of Life) becomes the symbol of the joyous and lighthearted beginning of a relationship between man and woman.
The center couple displays the immense power of love over two beings. At this point, the couple seems unable to notice anything around them.
At the end, however, we see the old, disillusioned woman as a symbol for the fleetingness of feelings and for inevitable separation.

Eye in Eye (1984)

The Kiss (1894)

Jealousy (1895)

Separation (1896)

The Dance of Life

What's especially interesting to me about Munch is that he truly was a kind of mulitmedia artist, as we would call today. Beside painting, he wrote a lot, often interpreting and commenting his own art. His writing was so accurate that there are few albums containing his paintings and prose titled "Munch in his own words". One form simply enriched the other. The words intensified emotions, he wanted to convey in his paitings. He often talked about the "symphony" of the word and a picture. That's why most of his paintings are embellished with Munch's prose or poems, which we can find at the back of his paintings or in his numerous diaries. So was with one of the first paintings from the Frieze of Life: The Dance of Life. The three major themes of the Frieze of Life, love, anxiety and death are clearly expressed in The Dance of Life. Thus, this painting can be seen as one of the centerpieces in the series.

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The Dance of Life (1900)

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The Dance of Life takes place on a bright summer night along the shore of Aasgaardstrand in Oslo Fjord. Lit by a full moon, couples engage in an energetic dance. The phallic reflection of the moonlight in the water gives the scene a mood of sexuality. In the center of the painting, a man in a dark suit and a woman in a red dress are sunk within each other. Both of them are in the prime of their lives. The woman's dress wraps around his legs, a couple of strains of her hair reach out towards him. His eyes are closed; the two seem totally self-absorbed and oblivious of others. On the left side a young girl in a white dress and a smile on her face enters the scene. Her hand reaches out towards a flower in front of her. On the opposite side, an old woman stands in a black dress. She watches the dance of the center couple with a bitter facial expression, her hands folded in withdrawn.

One can find a very personal interpretation for The Dance of Life. Munch's first romantic experience with a cousin-by-marriage, to which Munch gave the pseudonym "Mrs. Heiberg", provided him with his own experience of the process of love. After an impassioned and joyous love affair she severed their relationship in the late 1880s. For Munch this was an emotionally painful experience, which he would struggle with for decades to come. "How deep of a mark she must have dug into my heart so that no other image can ever totally erase hers", Munch wrote in 1890 . A later love affair with Tulla Larsen, Munch found oppressive. He continually retreated from her, unable to respond to the intensity of her affection . Knowing these biographical details, one might suspect that The Dance of Life is rooted in Munch's relationships with Mrs. Heiberg and Tulla Larsen. The man in the center of the painting is Munch himself, dancing with his old love, Mrs. Heiberg. Tulla Larsen is displayed on the left wanting Munch's love and on the right side, she stands rejected by him. Munch's description of the painting in his diary supports this interpretation:

I am dancing with my true love- a memory of her.

A smiling, blond-haired woman enters who wishes to take the flower of love - but it won't allow itself to be taken.

And on the other side one can see her dressed in black troubled by the couple dancing - rejected - as I was rejected from her [Mrs. Heiberg's] dance.

As Munch was rejected by his first love, Tulla Larsen in turn is now rejected by Munch. Both of them, painted in black and turned towards each other, find themselves as partners in suffering.

Frieze of Life

During next few years Munch was looking for a place for himself. He made few trips to France and Germany, exhibiting his work and looking for inspiration. Usually his art wasn't understood, as it happened in 1892 in Berlin, where he was invited by the Artist's Association of Berlin. His exhibitions was a formidable "succès de scandale". The general public and the older painters interpreted Munch's art as anarchistic provocation, and the exhibition was closed in protest.
In spite of that "success" he stayed in Berlin and entered a circle of literati, artists and intellectuals. In Berlin's bohemia they discussed the philosophy of Nietzsche, occultism, psychology and the dark sides of sexuality.

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In those early 90-ties Munch started to make sketeches for a series, he himself called

"Frieze of Life - A Poem about Life, Love and Death".

This frieze was intended as a series of freely adjoining pictures, which would give a clear view of life and the situation of modern man. These paintings give birth to a one whole large painting that shows the main themes of human existence, which Munch named:

—birth of love—
— blossoming and dissolution of love—
—anguish of life—
—death—.
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He wrote:

"Through them all there winds the curving shore line, and beyond it the sea, while under the trees, life, with all its complexities of grief and joy, carries on".

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The three major themes of the Frieze -Life, Love, Anxiety and Death were mainly inspired by his own experience and are reflections of his emotional states and the philosophy of life.

In my opinion, they make a wonderful picture of Munch's journey through life, expressing his deep anxiety, complicated love life and the search for the understanding of fear and death.

The frieze of life is surely Edvard Munch's whole artistic career symbol, the materialization in images of what painting meant to him:

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"My painting is actually an examination of conscience and an attempt to understand my relationships with existence"

"In my art I have tried to explain to myself life and its meaning.

I have also tried to help others to clarify their lives."

First paintings and a Mile Stone (The Sick Child)

A year later Munch left the Royal School of Design. Together with a group of young colleagues, he rented a studio in Karl Johan Street, in the centre of the city. A number of painters had studios in the same building, including Christian Krohg, a known and respected naturalist. He offered to give the young painters free advice and such an offer was impossible to refuse. Edvard Munch's debut as a painter took place in the spring of 1883, when he exhibited a painting at the Industry and Art Exhibition and in December of the same year he took part in the Autumn Exhibition for the first time. Within those few years Munch painted few works. The most significant are his self portrait and painted in 1884 "Morning".

In 1886 Munch created an art work, later on called the most important painting in Norwegian history of art. He painted "The Sick child", which he himself described to be a mile stone in his art. The intensity of the emotions was so high, that Edvard concluded that "most of the works he created later, was born with that one significant painting".

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The Sick Child (1886)

In that painting a sick girl, her mother's leaning head, their touching, trembling hands and profound silence are giving the impression of helplessness towards the illness and closing death. It seems to be artist's scream of despair and emotional compensation for the death of his sister. He perfectly captures child's inner suffering and establishes a paradox between her deep suffering and her patient awaiting of the final moment when her tormented soul will be taken into a quiet and calm place and finally given the peace she longs for in the painting, when looking towards the infinite horizon.

According to Munch himself, he repainted the picture 20 times before finally exhibiting it. Later in life he said that this experiment bore the seeds not only of central works of his own, but also of problems which were to occupy several styles of art in the 20th century.

The shocking effect the painting had when Munch exhibited it at the Autumn Exhibition in Kristiania in 1886 is unique in Norwegian art history. A storm of indignation and protest broke out. At the opening people crowded around in front of the painting and laughed, and in the press it was described as 'an abortion' and 'fish stew in lobster sauce'. Here it is important to underline why the people's reaction was so violent. They were not accustomed to see that kind of painting. At that time, art was still synonymous of beauty, harmony, good shape, and not of ugliness and pain.

In spite of the condemnation and grave criticism Edvard Munch didn't give up. Moreover, he would come back to that paiting many times within next years, repainting it in other techniques, but always with the same strucking emotions.

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The Sick Child (Litograph 1896)

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The Sick Child (1907)

Edvard Munch- Childhood and a grave Decision

Munch was born in Norway, December 12, 1863 and grew up in Kristiania (now Oslo). He lost his mother, Laura Cathrine Bjølstad, to tuberculosis in 1868- when he was only 5 years old. After their mother's death, the Munch siblings were raised by their father, who was a fanatical christian and instilled in his children a deep-rooted fear by repeatedly telling them that if they sinned in any way, they would be doomed to hell without chance of pardon.
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Edvard Munch's family and home situation, along with strict upbringing came to provide the inspiration for his most important motifs as a modern artist. One of Munch's younger sisters was diagnosed with mental illness at an early age. Edvard Munch was himself often sick in his childhood. He suffered from chronic asthmatic bronchitis and had several serious attacks of rheumatic fever.Of the five siblings only Andreas married, but he died a few months after the wedding. His older and favorite sister Sophie died of the tuberculosis in 1877.

Sophie was dying slowly, in fever, halucinating, begging for the rescue and life. Edvard was terrified by his own helplessness. His father- a medical doctor couldn't help his daughter. In 14 years old Edvard's eyes the God and his father were both quilty of Sophie's death.

From now on the death became a constant company in the life of Edvard Munch. Early childhood experience influenced all his art. He would later say:

"Sickness, insanity and death were the angels that surrounded my cradle and they have followed me throughout my life."

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In 1879 Edvard, as his father wished, enters Technical College to become an engineer. Frequent absences due to illness, however, led to large gaps in his attendance and in the autumn of 1880 he took the decision of his life and left college.

'My decision is now namely to be a painter',

he wrote in his diary on 8 November.

And in 1881 he enrolls at the Royal School of Art and Design.

That year he paints his first self portrait.

Edvard Munch- Scream

Why do I begin with Munch?

Honestly speaking I haven't got even slightest idea.

Maybe because his "Scream" made me come up with a plan for this blog.

Maybe because that painting is, even for laymen, one of the most known art works in the world. Or maybe 'cause it brings me on mind autumn anxiety and depression. Nevertheless, somehow I decided it will be a perfect beginning. And the more I got to know about Edvard Munch and his art, the more my choice turned out to be right.

I met a man full of obsessions, haunted by childhood tragedies and torn in his lovelife. A true artist with passion for his work, reflecting his fear, mental instability and pursue for the answer to questions of the truth about human being.

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"My art is rooted in a single reflection: why am I not as others are? Why was there a curse on my cradle? Why did I come into the world without any choice?

My art gives meaning to my life."

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Edvard Munch

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More to come...