![\"Edvard](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/edvardmunch-visitoslo.com_.jpg\")
Edvard Munch. Image from visitoslo.com<\/p>\n Edvard Munch. Image from visitoslo.com<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Speaking of his family\u2019s ill health, Munch once said: “I inherited two of mankind’s most frightful enemies – the heritage of consumption and insanity.”
\nWith irony in the fact that the painter\u2019s father was a doctor, his family suffered tragedy in ill health. Munch lost his mother and sister young to tuberculosis, and his other sister was eventually committed to an asylum due to mental health.<\/p>\n
Raised by his widowed father, Munch was discouraged from choosing painting as a career. Undeterred by this, he enrolled in Art College and later cited his father\u2019s dark temperament as influential in the shaping of his psyche and his work.<\/p>\n
Edvard Munch moved to Paris in 1889, where his style began to develop under the influence of Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gaugin\u2019s conveyance of emotion through colour.<\/p>\n
The artists\u2019 most famous painting \u201cThe Scream\u201d, is the outcome of anxiety and fear he experienced when out walking and the sky suddenly turning blood red. The agonised expression on the face of the figure in the painting expresses exactly his unnerved sentiments.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/wikiart_3.jpg\")
The Scream. Image from commons.wikimedia.org and Aunt Karen in the Rocking Chair, 1883. Image from wikiart.org<\/p>\n
The painting was part of his “Frieze of Life” series, where sickness, death, fear, love and melancholy are prominent themes.<\/p>\n
There are four versions of \u201cThe Scream\u201d \u2013 two in pastel and two paintings. One of the pastel\u2019s sold for over $100 million in 2012, making it the fourth highest nominal price paid for a painting at auction.<\/p>\n
The painter\u2019s successful peak led to a downward spiral, and resulted in him spending time in a sanitarium. His excessive drinking and poor mental health brought on a psychosis, and Munch claimed to hear voices and refer to himself as \u201cverging on madness\u201d.<\/p>\n
After treatment, Munch had a newly restored sense of optimism, resulting his use of a lighter palette in his work. Using negative space in abundance for the first time, he created \u201cThe Sun\u201d, \u201cSpring Ploughing\u201d and \u201cBathing Man\u201d \u2013 going as far as to now cheerfully title his works too.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/wikiart_2.jpg\")
The Sun. Image from wikiart.org<\/p>\n
In the 1930s and 40s, the Nazis labeled Munch\u2019s work as \u201cdegenerate\u201d, with Hitler declaring “For all we care, those prehistoric Stone Age culture barbarians and art-stutterers can return to the caves of their ancestors and there can apply their primitive international scratching.” Other artists tarred with this brush included Picasso, Paul Klee, Matisse and Munch\u2019s hero, Gauguin.<\/p>\n
Munch died in Norway in 1944, but the painter\u2019s legacy lives on through popular culture. The master of pop-art, Andy Warhol, produced silk prints of Munch\u2019s in the 80s, Wes Craven injected the iconic face of \u201cThe Scream\u201d into his 1996 film of the same name and the creators of Dr. Who even appropriated the figure in a 2011 episode of the show.<\/p>\n
![\"Andy](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/warhol.jpg\")
Andy Warhol’s Munch inspired prints, 1984<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Happy birthday Edvard Munch!<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42487,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11856,139],"tags":[3649,7047,7048,7049,1458,27,7050,7051,7052,7053,470],"class_list":["post-42446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sleek-art","category-art","tag-andy-warhol","tag-bathing-man","tag-edvard-munch","tag-frieze-of-life","tag-painting","tag-paris","tag-paul-gaugin","tag-spring-ploughing","tag-the-scream","tag-the-sun","tag-vincent-van-gogh"],"acf":{"main_category":null,"legacy":"1","exclude_from_ads":null,"hero_title":null,"subtitle":null,"hero":null,"teasers":null,"facebook_image":null,"related_articles":null,"next_article":null,"sleek_card_focus":null,"content":null},"yoast_head":"\n