Art History Online – Edvard Munch: The Scream (1893)

By watching this video you’ll learn the major facts about ‘Der Schrei der Natur’ (original German title), interpretations are explained and the painting will be visually analysed. The video will also show some parodies of and references to ‘ The Scream’ in pop culture and Art.

‘The Scream’ by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch is seen as a symbol of modern anxiety and alienation. The powerful colors, the vivid lines, the dynamic composition and its enigmatic character make this masterpiece such an appealing work of Art. Inspired by the Post-Impressionist work by Van Gogh and Gauguin in Paris, Munch developed his own expressionist and symbolic style.

Munch made several versions of the painting. A pastel from 1895 was sold for almost 120 million dollars at a Sotheby’s auction and thereby broke a record: it was the highest amount ever payed for a painting at an auction.

‘The Scream’ might evoke more questions than could be answered, but especially this ambiguous and radical character gives it the ability to bear so many meanings and allows it to speak to so many people throughout generations.

Comments:

Jeffrey Hunter 1 month ago
I greatly appreciated your study of Edvard Munch artwork “The Scream” I was unaware of his emotional troubles with life and his connection to nature. His intuition of nature’s pain by feeling nature screaming is fascinating taking into account that he was tortured with anxiety concerning the ill effects of civilization’s industrial age on nature. As you state so eloquently that Munch felt discontented with the evolving modern world and the irreversible effects on nature.

Now I have an understanding of what he was illustrating in the emotion of the pain of the main figure. His intuition and his remarks that he heard the scream in nature bring chills to my spine – Our world has been raped without regard due to the system of Neo Classical Economics. This painting was perhaps his way of warning the human species that nature would be kind in the future.

We are most likely on the cusp of run-away global warming that may experience abrupt catastrophic changes to climate that could see the loss of habitat for human and extinction. What is troubling me lately is some very intelligent people are warning that the current extinction event that is in its 2nd decade has already gone past the tipping point and our extinction could happen in the next 20 to 50 years

Some may doubt the claims of global warming and the many concerns of the harm and the effects that our pollution have caused and that the extinction of human life on Earth is not possible. My concern is that that is foolishness and will only make things worse as we must make radical changes now tomorrow because some politician or banker or just the ignorant have other agendas.

Your interpretation and Munch’s remarks about “The Scream” are hardly vague – If the scientists are correct and our planet will not support the human species much longer then “The Scream” will serve as testimony to what Munch felt that early evening and may in the far off future be considered as the most important artwork ever created on Earth

I might add that I sell novelty neckties and one collection is the Fine Art Ties and you can imagine that one of the most popular art tie is “The Scream” by Edvard Munch -http://www.nicetiestore.com/edmuarttiesc.html

daroyalgeneral 5 days ago
WOW!!! *finger snaps*

Carolina Cabral 1 day ago
Loved!

Maddy Cone 2 weeks ago
i wanna have my baby cousin paint somthing like this on a piece of cardboard nd then would be rich for dayzz

Steven Goutzioulis (SGMATHS) 1 week ago
Christine…!
Where have you been…!
Check out this ‘Real Asset’…!
It was sold for $119.9 Million at Sotheby’s Art Auction…!
Christine it is time to SCREAM…!·

Amalie Shelby 3 months ago
the scream painting i have an doctor who version of it and no one can identify the two men standing there almost looking at the painter and the both look mannish and wearing something odd that back then they would think you are crazy, one is wearing astronaut like suite and the other some sort of cowboy cloths in the water there is no ship out there. Can anyone help me identify the two men?

Lyn Lewis 3 months ago
Really excellent video.I really enjoyed it.

erepsekahs 5 months ago (edited)
‘The Toothache’ ‘The Nightmare’ ‘The Tax Audit’ It’s crap. Trying to analyze it or justify it’s revolting approach is ridiculous. It is not clever. It is definitely not a scream. It’s just awful. And please don’t say I do not understand or appreciate art. This was and is one of the great cons of the art world where the public seem to need to be told what is good. Please understand I did not say it is not a good investment…….enough people believe it is to make it worth more and more, and that’s what the art world counts on….but as far as it being clever PLEASE….it’s crap.

Jon Harris 4 months ago
+erepsekahs i fully relate to your sentiments only for me after spending five weeks in a mental hospital (Asylum, the term used in munch’s days) this was the only painting that I could relate too. It reflected the insanity and pain I was feeling, that was twenty years ago and today it still reminds me of the balancing act that I live with everyday, with one hand holding insight and the other madness.

Rufus Burne 4 months ago
+Jon Harris A child could paint it dickhead!

erepsekahs 4 months ago
+Jon Harris Get a 5 year old to paint you another.

Lottie M 4 weeks ago
this was the first painting that actually hit me hard and I almost burst into tears, everyone has their own opinion

Rufus Burne 4 weeks ago
+Lottie M you’re insane, you need a focus in life ok.

erepsekahs 4 weeks ago
+Lottie M Ahhhhhh hahahahahahahahaahhaahahaha Poor you. It’s a piece of shit, of course it is, that was Munch’s joke. His agent bet him 100 marks that he could sell it for a million marks. Munch lost.

Lottie M 4 weeks ago
+Rufus Burne +erepsekahs everyone interprets things in their own way.. if you read about what munch wrote about the painting it honestly shows it to be something else, i used to hate it until i read about it. It touches on an issue that’s very important to a lot of people

erepsekahs 4 weeks ago
+Lottie M It is a no-talent childish piece of crap promoted as great art by the same people who promoted the reproduction of a soup can which in itself was commercial art. The joke is on the people who buy the shit. I know this is a fact as I have someone on ’the inside’ as a friend and thinks she is very clever in being able to promote crap and make it worth millions. It’s crap BUT some people get very rich by promoting it.

Lottie M 4 weeks ago
+erepsekahs everyone has their own opinion, i love it

Maddy Cone 2 weeks ago
+erepsekahs amen

erepsekahs 2 weeks ago
+Lottie M You would lottie because you have been told it’s great art. If you like it THAT much I would suggest you go to your local grade school and select a similarly talented piece of work and offer a few thousand for it. If you do not feel comfortable making that judgment then bring me along and I’ll pick one out for you.

Rodrigo Lopez 3 weeks ago
I am only one that thinks scene happening over a bridge is not casual? Imo bridge clearly represents “life travel” and picture symbolithes anxiety over that experience.

zindi1138 1 month ago
lost her earrings poor woman!

texanne88 10 months ago
Thank you!

free thinker 11 months ago
Thank you so much, GREAT job !

Rufus Burne 4 months ago
I can not help laugh at this painting LMAO! A child could paint it you idiots.

Maddy Cone 2 weeks ago
+Rufus Burne thank you my point exactly

Rufus Burne 2 weeks ago
+Maddy Cone Thank you. I’m never wrong anyway, no matter what anyone says.