What is the frieze of life and what does it intent to do?”
This, the first comprehensive exhibition of Edvard Munch’s art in Australia, assembles more than 80 works from across the artist’s entire oeuvre – including paintings, prints, drawings, and watercolours. Some of these will constitute the seminal and well-known images of Munch’s early maturity, whilst the greater part will introduce a substantial body of work made from the early 1900s until shortly before his death – which is largely unknown here. Edvard Munch Norwegian 1863–1944 Vampire Vampyr 1893–94 oil on canvas 91.0 x 109.0 cm Munch-museet, Oslo (M 679) © Munch-Ellingsen Group/BONO © Licensed by Viscopy, Sydney 2004 Perhaps more than any other artist, Edvard Munch has given shape to the inner life and psyche of modern man and is thus a precursor in the development of modern psychology. His images of existential dread, anxiety, loneliness and the complex emotions of human sexuality have become icons of our era. Most of us in the Western world know such images as The Scream, Anxiety,
This, the first comprehensive exhibition of Edvard Munch’s art in Australia, assembles more than 80 works from across the artist’s entire oeuvre – including paintings, prints, drawings, and watercolours. Some of these will constitute the seminal and well-known images of Munch’s early maturity, whilst the greater part will introduce a substantial body of work made from the early 1900s until shortly before his death – which is largely unknown here. Perhaps more than any other artist, Edvard Munch has given shape to the inner life and psyche of modern man and is thus a precursor in the development of modern psychology. His images of existential dread, anxiety, loneliness and the complex emotions of human sexuality have become icons of our era. Most of us in the Western world know such images as The Scream, Anxiety, Jealousy, The Kiss, Madonna, Vampire, The Dance of Life. Munch developed these great themes of Angst, Love, Sex and Death during the 1890s – a project he called the Frieze of L
