ART 235: Pre-Modern Art History

In this book, Jay A. Clarke shows that Munch was keenly aware of the art world of his day, adopting motifs, styles, and techniques from a wide variety of sources, including many Scandinavian artists. By presenting Munch's paintings, prints, and drawings in relation to those of European contemporaries, including Harriet Backer, James Ensor, Vincent van Gogh, Max Klinger, Christian Krohg, and Claude Monet, Clarke reveals often surprising connections and influences. This interpretive approach, grounded in Munch's diaries and letters, period criticism, and the artworks themselves, reintroduces Munch as an artist who cultivated myths both visual and personal.

The nine essays written by art historians from the US, Germany, Switzerland, and Norway shed new light upon different sides of Munch and his art, as well as on the impact he has had in art history. The authors in this anthology are more critical of their sources than has been seen earlier in research on Munch, and their interpretations of works are increasingly based on information that can be documented. One of the authors describes the process of identifying a formerly unknown Munch painting, Seated Nude and Three Male Heads, as well as addressing general problems of dating concerning Munch's oeuvres. In another essay, it is argued that Munch and his works have often been better comprehended by other artists than by traditional art historians.

Edvard Munch (1863-1944) is best known today as a painter, but his reputation was in fact established through his prints, which were central to his creative process. Munch's early life in the industrial town of Kristiania (renamed Oslo in 1925) was marked by sickness and poverty. His first works centred on the expression of deep emotional experiences, specifically the deaths of his mother and teenage sister when he was growing up.