Freyda Spira – författare

A revealing examination of how mental illness informs and connects the highly charged work of Edvard Munch and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner   The Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (1863–1944) and the German artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880–1938) are considered modernist visionaries. They were also pioneering printmakers, eschewing the mastery of one technique for experimentation across many. Born a generation apart, they worked in an expressionist mode, in which they did not simply replicate what they saw but rather filtered everything through their own imagination and memories. Exploiting the perceptual and emotional power of color and abstraction for creative expression, they portrayed what they perceived to be a fragmented, harrowing reality; both artists endured bouts of anxiety and depression, battled substance abuse, and received psychiatric care. Featuring never-before-published prints from the collection of Nelson Blitz Jr. and Catherine Woodard, as well as etchings, lithographs, and hand-colored woodcuts from select public and private collections across the United States, this volume puts these two giants of Expressionism in a dialogue that foregrounds issues of mental health and offers a fresh approach that blends art history and the history of medical treatment. The included essays examine the artistic affinities and divergences in their printmaking and the ways in which they used shadows to imagine pathologized psychological and psychiatric experiences in their art.  Distributed for the Yale University Art Gallery  Exhibition Schedule:  Yale University Art Gallery(February 16–June 23, 2024)

Placing artists at the center of nineteenth-century Demark’s dramatic cultural, political, and philosophical transformation, this publication explores their persistent national pride in a time of turmoilThough known as the Danish Golden Age, nineteenth-century Denmark was one of the most tumultuous periods in the nation’s history—from the disastrous siege of Copenhagen and the collapse of Denmark’s monarchy to the swelling tide of nationalism that eventually engulfed all of Europe. This volume places artists at the center of Denmark’s dramatic cultural, political, and philosophical transformation by bringing together 90 drawings, paintings, and oil sketches by Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, Christen Købke, Constantin Hansen, Martinus Rørbye, Johan Thomas Lundbye, Vilhelm Hammershøi, and others. Five thematic essays by leading scholars in Denmark and the United States explore the way Danish artists manifested the pride, traditions, and anxieties of their nation; the sea’s ever-changing role as a marker of Danish identity; the evolving nature of portraiture; nostalgia for the Danish landscape and folk traditions; and the influence on Danish artists of their travels throughout Europe.Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Distributed by Yale University Press   Exhibition Schedule:The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York(January 26–April 16, 2023)The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles(May 23–August 20, 2023)