Edvard Munch

Edvard Munch was born in Norway in 1863. After his mother died of tuberculosis in 1868; he was left to be raised by his father. Unfortunately, his father suffered from mental illness teaching his children to be fearful of hell and other deep seated issues. This is one of the major influences of Munch's dark emotions and undertones in his artwork. Edvard Munch had traveled to Paris in 1885 and was very impressed by the artists. Here, he mastered expressionistic techniques. Between 1892 and 1908 Munch was traveling back and forth from Paris to Berlin. His artwork played a major role in German expressionism and which helped to pave the way for Dadaism to flourish in Germany.  

Golgotha 1900

This painting depicts the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Munch juxtaposes light and dark within his painting. The lighter blue for Christ and a darker blue grey for the crowds. The crowd is a mix of emotions sad, happy confused and even diabolical. Christ's facial expression shows confusion although his head is upright. Munch portrays that although he may be at the stake, Christ does not feel defeated. The raised eyebrows of Christ suggest that he is fearful of what is going on. Munch does an excellent job of showing just how barbaric the crucifixion is. The crowd sort of mixes in together at the cross and looks more animal like. One of the central themes of this piece is hope. Although the holy savior is being crucified the mixed reaction of the crowd indicates that all hope is not lost. The nihilistic theme that is obvious here is the importance of the followers as opposed to the "super human". The crowd has more power over the "super human" even though they are ignorant of that fact. This is why today religion plays such an important role to people. The fear of God and religious leaders can be very limiting to their own power. However, if they can look past the religion they would be able to hold more power within their societies.

Evening on Karl Johan Street 1892

To understand this painting fully we must first understand where Karl Johan Street is located. Munch here a street in his native town of Oslow, Norway. The people of this town are very uniform, same style hats, same color clothing and even the same facial expression. The people of the town are all uniformly moving forward except the one bystander who is moving back. The people of Karl Johan Street have a mesmerized look on their faces, like they are all in a trance. Munch is showing the problems of conformity within society. Their is no room for diversity or expression. The people have lost touch with themselves as individuals. This is Nihilistic because it represents the dangers of society not being able to recognize they have fallen into these patterns of conformity. People can be easily influenced under these conditions, which then can turn this mesmerized society from a group of people walking down the street to a dangerous uniform force. For example, as with Adolf Hitler and the repressed German people, he was able to take control of the situation and society in his favor. Munch displays the importance of diversity by portraying the opposite, danger of conformity. This central idea is still important today because in order to be able to not conform to society one must overcome the society pressures against them. 

Anxiety 1894

The painting depicts many forms of anxiety. The woman's eyes in the front display a very somber anxiety. Something is troubling to her but she does not want to make it very obvious. However the man standing behind her to the left nearly has his eyes out of his sockets displaying anxiety, mixed with shock and possible terror. Using this form of expressionism to bring out other emotions rather than happy, euphoria, or even being sad was very dadaistic. However, the message behind the piece is not so harsh. There is definitely a silver lining underneath the clouds. This can be seen through the boats in the back with a brighter background unlike those that are walking in the picture in a darker grey black. Friedrich Nietzche would be a fan of this piece because he believed in good. His famous quote "what doesn't kill us makes us stronger" is portrayed in this piece. Anxiety here is still an emotion and people's emotions can change. Munch's message behind this painting is timeless; for those who are going through a string of sorrowful emotions can overcome them. Munch carefully places the boats far away underneath the light because when people are feeling anxiety must remember that better days may be far but they are still there. This is important for people today to be reassured that no matter what hardships may come tomorrow is another day do not lose hope.