From
the MOMA Website:
This is the first retrospective devoted to the
work of the internationally renowned Norwegian painter, printmaker,
and draftsman to be held in an American museum in almost three
decades. Edvard Munch: The Modern Life of the Soul surveys
Munch’s career in its entirety, from 1880 to 1944, showcasing
his artistic achievement in its true richness and diversity.
Beginning with the artist’s early portraits and genre
scenes, the exhibition charts Munch’s move away from
Norwegian naturalism toward an unprecedented exploration of
modern existential experience. Through eighty-seven paintings
and fifty works on paper representing each phase of his career,
the exhibition reveals Munch’s struggle to translate
personal trauma into universal terms and, in the process, comprehend
the fundamental components of human existence: birth, love,
and death. |