University news

In June the Hunterian Art Gallery will host a major loan exhibition from the Munch Museum, Oslo.

Edvard Munch: Prints is dedicated to prints by Edvard Munch (1863-1944) and will be the most substantial display to be exhibited in the UK in over 35 years. Featuring 40 of the finest prints from throughout Munch’s career, the works have been chosen to illustrate his development as a graphic artist, as well as the important themes of his art. The show will include the iconic black and white lithograph ‘The Scream’, which is one of the most famous pictures in the world. This will be the last chance for visitors to see this print outside Norway, as the Hunterian will be the last Art Gallery to receive the work on loan. Other works include the controversial lithograph ‘Madonna’, the striking ‘Self-portrait’ lithograph and the atmospheric woodcut ‘Melancholy’.

Prints are an important aspect of Munch’s art and the 40 works on show represent the full range of his printmaking, in each of the techniques he used: etching, lithography and woodcut. Munch is Norway’s greatest painter and was an enormously influential artist. Prints enabled Munch to exhibit widely throughout Europe and helped to spread his influence.

Munch was born in Løten, but grew up in Kristiania (Oslo). His earliest works were Impressionist in style, but he achieved an artistic breakthrough with his painting ‘The Sick Child’ in 1886. This was the first of many works that explore human, psychological suffering, reflecting his own painful childhood experiences as well as encapsulating ideas about love promoted by Bohemian writer friends in Oslo. Only later was it recognsied as one of the first works of the new Expressioniost movement.

PICTURE: Edvard Munch, ‘The Scream’, 1895, (Munch Museum, Oslo)
© Munch Museum/Munch - Ellingsen Group, BONO, Oslo/DACS, London 2009

Munch travelled to Paris in the period 1889 -1892 to study and acquaint himself with new developments in art. He lived mainly in Berlin (1893 - 1909), another major cultural centre, and he began making prints there in 1894, initially from a desperate need to publicise his paintings. By 1904 prints provided Munch with the means to make a living, and crucially they found him the encouragement of collectors and fellow artists. He was an artist who continually pondered, revised and repeated his images, and the prints are frequently the finest and most powerful versions of his subjects. His large woodcuts, printed in colour using an innovative technique, were a major influence on German Expressionism. 

From the 1890s Munch exhibited his works as a series about the life of the soul, working towards what he later called his ‘Frieze of Life’, with sections devoted to love, anxiety and death. In retrospect we see that this series was the natural product of the mind of a graphic artist, and one familiar with earlier prints. After a nervous breakdown in 1908, Munch returned to Norway but contributed to important exhibitions, most notably the Cologne Sonderbund show of 1912 in which he was hailed (alongside Van Gogh and Gauguin) as one of the founders of Expressionism.  

Munch’s greatest prints were made in the decade 1895-1905, but the artist continued painting and making prints until his death in 1944. The exhibition includes examples of the best work from all periods, including the impressive large woodcut ‘The Girls on the Bridge’ of 1918, which shows the pier in the village of Åsgårdstrand where the artist retreated each summer to paint. 

PICTURE: Edvard Munch, ‘Self-Portrait’, 1895, (Munch Museum, Oslo)
© Munch Museum/Munch - Ellingsen Group, BONO, Oslo/DACS, London 2009 Edvard Munch: Prints runs from 12 June - 5 September 2009. Admission is free.

The exhibition has been supported by J&J Denholm Limited and the Chancellor’s Fund.

Edvard Munch: Prints will be on show at the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, from 18 September - 6 December 2009.

Hunterian Art Gallery
82 Hillhead Street
University of Glasgow
Glasgow G12 8QQ

Open Monday - Saturday, 9.30am - 5.00pm
Closed Sundays and 18 - 20 July 2009 inclusive

For images contact:
Harriet Gaston, Publicity & Marketing Manager, Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery
Email H.Gaston@museum.gla.ac.uk
Telephone 0141 330 3310

For further information contact:
Mungo Campbell, Deputy Director, Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery
Email M.Campbell@museum.gla.ac.uk
Telephone 0141 330 4735

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First published: 19 March 2009