Edvard Munch: Between the Clock and the Bed

Accompanying an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, this catalogue showcases more than 60 paintings by Norwegian expressionist Edvard Munch (1863–1944) accompanied by four informative essays by art historians and a preface by Norwegian novelist Karl Ove Knausgaard. The essays, selected by the show’s organizers, offer insight into Munch’s career, examining the artist’s stylistic trajectory, work processes, and even business acumen. Particularly noteworthy is Patricia Berman’s contribution, which describes how Munch was able to rise in the art market without appearing to treat his art as a mere commodity, a feat accomplished by his vast network of friends and collectors and by his personal style, which resonated snugly with the “cult of the self” and personal authenticity that was vogue in the art market at the time. In the final essay, Richard Schiff shows that Munch was uniquely able to unify material representation with abstract emotion, as demonstrated by his famous Scream, in which the heaving landscape and distorted figures increase the viewer’s sensations of panic and dread. The elevated tone and tight focus of these essays seem directed toward scholars and serious Munch enthusiasts. However, the book’s main appeal is the abundant reproductions of Munch’s paintings, which, intensely expressive, melancholic, and revealing as they are, amplify Knausgaard’s assessment that Munch’s confessional paintings “are made up of colors and shapes and touch us in a way that words never can.” [em](Aug.) [/em]