Edvard Munch – författare

Rethinking Art from the Inside OutThe Austrian artist Maria Lassnig (b. Kappel am Krappfeld, 1919; d. Vienna, 2014) and the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch (b. Løten, 1863; d. Ekely, Oslo, 1944) were equals in the radical and unsparing scrutiny of their own selves. Each also had a ­singular way of handling paint as a means of their art and powerful medium for expression of emotions like grief, love, loneliness, trepidation, joy, pain, or also for physical levels of perception. The richly illustrated volume accompanies the grand double exhibition of these two exceptional artists’ oeuvres. Released on occasion of the exhibitions at Hamburger Kunsthalle and Kunsthaus Zürich, it presents intimate insights into the artists’ works, highlighting parallels as well as differences between what are arguably two of the most celebrated oeuvres in more recent art history. With writings by Andreas Eriksson, ­Sandra Gianfreda, Sheela Gowda, Johanna Hornauer, Hans Dieter Huber, Siri Hustvedt, ­Brigitte Kölle, Maria Lassnig, Edvard Munch, Johanna Ortner, Ulrike Ottinger, Ashley Hans Scheirl, Luc Tuymans, and others.

A gem of a book that stays with you long after you have finished it. Edvard Munch wrote continuously; letters, diaries, literary texts and other notes. In Like a Ghost I Leave You you will find striking statements about art versus nature, enemies, money, death and much more. - "Had I been in Possession of the as yet undiscovered little Remote telephone which one carries around in one’s Pocket You would have long ago received Communications from me"- Undated draft of a letter to Jens Willumsen.

Scandinavia's most famous painter, the Norwegian Edvard Munch (1863-1944), is probably best known for his painting The Scream, a universally recognized icon of terror and despair. (A version of The Scream was stolen from the Edvard Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway, in August 2004, and has not yet been recovered.) But Munch considered himself a writer as well as a painter. Munch began painting as a teenager and, in his young adulthood, studied and worked in Paris and Berlin, where he evolved a highly personal style in paintings and works on paper. And in diaries that he kept for decades, he also experimented with reminiscence, fiction, prose portraits, philosophical speculations, and surrealism. Known as an artist who captured both the ecstasies and the hellish depths of the human condition, Munch conveys these emotions in his diaries but also reveals other facets of his personality in remarks and stories that are alternately droll, compassionate, romantic, and cerebral. This English translation of Edward Munch's private diaries, the most extensive edition to appear in any language, captures the eloquent lyricism of the original Norwegian text. The journal entries in this volume span the period from the 1880s, when Munch was in his twenties, until the 1930s, reflecting the changes in his life and his work. The book is illustrated with fifteen of Munch's drawings, many of them rarely seen before. Though excerpts from these diaries have been previously published elsewhere, no translation has captured the real passion and poetry of Munch's voice. This translation lets Munch speak for himself and evokes the primal passion of his diaries. J. Gill Holland's exceptional work adds a whole new level to our understanding of the artist and the depth of his scream.