#10 Munch at 150: Exhibit at the Norway National Gallery of Art

When I was growing up, my Mum had a book on Munch and on a nearly daily basis I saw the cover of the work.  I'd seen it so many times I failed to see it.  This was the cover.  As an art history student, I ran into Munch again (though I learned to call him 'Edvard Mooonk' not Eddy Munch as I had when I was 12).  I studied his works carefully for my exams.  As an art history student, you're often led to believe that you know an artist if you can identify and "read" 5-10 works by him or her.  Munch was one of those artists I thought I knew but I was excited to leave the Munch at 150 exhibit in Oslo realizing how little I'd known about him and the paintings I thought I knew.  I also realized I only knew him by slides and reproductions in text books.  As we shuffled between admirably attentive school groups toward the exhibit's entrance,  I thought, "Ahh... Eddy, we meet again."  I thought I'd be going to meet an old friends but I was mistaken.  I met someone brand new. 
This exhibit was wonderfully curated not only in terms of scope, design, arrangement within the museum but also in terms of the additional materials made available on the walls and through your smartphone (free wireless in the exhibit let you download an audio and visual app to help guide you through-- very well done) and on the web.  I was, however, most excited to finally see the complexity, diversity and visual context of the Munch works I thought I knew and also see works I never would have guessed would be works by Munch.  It's good to be constantly reminded of how little I know.
I had seen the work Madonna and had memorized its title and date for exams.  I'm sure I wrote a passable exam paragraph on this piece but seeing this work in a room full of other versions and prints was an art history class in and of itself.  The same could be said for variations of The Voice (1893) and The Kiss (1892).  Seeing multiple versions of all of these works reminded me that the paintings I saw in those darkened art history classrooms weren't ends in themselves but points on a longer and more complex creative journey.   I also ran into the work I'd recognized from my mum's book and learned, for the first time, that this work was called "Evening on Karl Johan" (1892) which was remarkable to me because we'd spent part of our time in Oslo wandering up and down Karl Johan street, unaware that this was the street in the painting I had seen so often on the cover of my mum's book.  And, of course, I saw many versions of The Scream (1895) which, as a culture, we've seen so many times and seen parodied so often that we cannot actually "see" it any more.  But seeing it in person and seeing its many versions and revisions and reversions, I was starting to feel like I could see it anew.  And it is remarkable.  The woodcuts of it might even be more interesting than the more famous painting.
Also surprising were works like his Girls on the Bridge (1901) and Women on the Bridge (1902) which, while still sort of sinister, are lighter and airier than what we usually conjure when we think of Munch. The Enchanted Forest (1903) seems particularly unusual.
There is a lot of talk about the power of the internet and how digital resources can bring the world to us wherever we are.  I have a hard time arguing with that logic because it's true.  Yet, I also see how very different it is to see these works in person than it was to see them as an art history student on a big screen in a dark classroom.  I think the people who organized the Munch at 150 show also realized the power of seeing works in person because they arranged for one of Munch's self-portraits to travel to different places in Norway (including the tiny Roros).  But they also realize that digital technologies can "bring" people to the show who couldn't otherwise have seen it.  Here's but one example.  They're doing interesting things and I hope more museums start doing things like this.  The Munch exhibit was placed mid-list of these we wanted to see and do in Oslo but I am so very glad we made it to this show. It was nice to see you again, Eddy Munch.