Heidi Bale Amundsen – författare

The jarring emptiness following the loss of a loved one, the expansive out-of-body sensation of sensual touch, the lassitude of melancholy and the ecstatic receptivity to sunshine. His ability to capture and convey sensation and feelings through the materials of art, places the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (1863–1944) at the forefront of European art at the turn of the last century.Interestingly, Munch’s artistic exploration of perception, and his persistent questioning of the objectivity of vision, intersect with ideas that matured within the fields of psychology and experimental optics at the time.Edvard Munch: Inner Fire examines these connections, demonstrating his continuing exploration of the conditions of sight. The essays in this catalogue examine this phenomenon while also probing a lesser-known aspect of the artist’s work: Munch’s relationship to Italy.The first essay, Lasse Jacobsen’s ‘Edvard Munch. Italian Impressions’, explores this connection explicitly, as part of a general overview of Munch’s life and work.The second text, ‘Reflections in Munch’s Inner Eye’ by Patricia G. Berman, charts the art historical context of Munch’s exploration of experience’s subjective dimension. Emil Leth Meilvang’s ‘Seeing without Sight. Munch’s Vision’, on its part, explores the relationship between Munch’s artistic development and simultaneous developments within the perceptual sciences. Edvard Munch. Inner Fire includes essayistic pieces by authors Melania G. Mazzucco and Hanne Ørstavik: ‘I am a Romantic’ and ‘Who Am I’. Each demonstrates Munch’s continuing ability to light the inner fires of other artists.

Burst! Abstract Painting After 1945 looks at the close, but previously unexplored relationship between Abstract Expressionism and Art Informel. Through texts and close to 100 illustrations, the book describes a vital creative exchange across the Atlantic that would entirely redefine painting. Big, expansive, paint-splattered surfaces; spontaneous actions captured on canvas; new ideas of freedom. A story of post-war recovery and Transatlantic dialogue. On both sides of the ocean, society was reacting to the horrors of the Second World War, the Holocaust and the coming of the atom bomb. The book shows how artists searched for new ways to deal with these shattering events. With works by Jean Dubuffet, Natalia Dumitresco, Helen Frankenthaler, Asger Jorn, Lee Krasner, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Sam Francis, Joan Mitchell, Ernst Wilhelm Nay, Barnett Newman, Georges Mathieu, Hedda Sterne and Clyfford Still, and more.

Ever since Munch first came up with the Scream motif at the end of the 19th century, countless artists, including Andy Warhol and Marina Abramović, have modified it within their own work. In addition, the open-mouthed figure has cropped up in popular cultural productions such as Wes Craven’s Scream film franchise, the poster for the kids’ movie Home Alone, and in scores of satirical cartoons – on everything from Brexit to Donald Trump’s presidency and tax rises – as well as on innumerable political banners and placards, most recently in protests about the climate emergency. In recent years, the Scream image has also taken a prominent place on digital screens in the form of its own emoji and as the basis of countless memes. At the same time, the quantity of souvenirs and other objects decorated with or shaped like Munch’s figure of desperation has increased immeasurably. In short: these days The Scream haunts pretty much every layer of culture. It is without doubt one of the most frequently reproduced images in the history of art, equalled only perhaps by Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, and is the originator of a constantly expanding network of analogue and digital mutations. Via these three texts, and a rich selection of illustrations – including all known Scream images ever made by the artist himself, a selection of his Scream texts and countless so-called Scream mutations – this book embraces Munch’s best-known image as a cultural phenomenon.

Georg Baselitz has been exploring, challenging and redefining contemporary art for over six decades, mainly via the medium of paint. A cornerstone of this task has been his complex exchange with historical and contemporary art. Georg Baselitz: Feet First illuminates the German artist’s relationship to the art of Edvard Munch, which he has been in artistic dialogue with since the 1960s.This richly illustrated book includes writings by exhi­bition curator Jon-Ove Steihaug, Christian Weikop, Sverre Wyller and Baselitz himself, as well as a longer conversation with the artist.

Over the course of Edvard Munch’s lifetime, discoveries such as X-rays, germ theory, antibiotics and contraception transformed our understanding of the body forever. The exhibition Lifeblood – Edvard Munch places the Norwegian artist at the heart of this dramatic development, juxtaposing his works with skeletons, scalpels, sputum bottles and a range of other objects from the history of modern healthcare.In this book, these objects are given voice and presence through a diverse selection of texts written by art and medical historians, healthcare workers, activists, museum professionals, artists and writers. Each contribution takes works or objects from the exhibition as its point of departure, using them as an entryway into the complex terrain of care. The maps they draw are not the same – and that is precisely the point: medical experience is never uniform, but shaped by each individual’s circumstances and identities.Richly illustrated, with contributions by exhibition curator Allison Morehead and by Fatema Abdoolcarim, Patricia G. Berman, Gemma Blackshaw, Alice Butler, Alison W. Chang, Hege Duckert, Jacalyn Duffin, Signe Endresen, Ute Kuhlemann Falck, Jan Grue, Johanna Hedva, Nora Heidorn, Aurora Hoel, Mary Hunter, Cathrine Knudsen, Cathrine Krøger, Olivia Laing, Ageliki Lefkaditou, Phil Loring, Olaug Nilssen, Kaveh Rashidi, Natasha Ruiz-Gómez, Thorvald Steen, Sara Stridsberg, Espen Stueland and Ingvard Wilhelmsen.

British Portuguese Paula Rego (1935–2022) carved out her place in international art history with a self-possessed, uncompromising expression and a burning commitment to fighting oppression and lack of freedom. She grew up in Portugal under António de Oliveira Salazar’s dictatorship, which imposed strong constraints, especially on women’s freedom, and throughout her long career Rego dissected the relationship between gender, the body and power in a dark, fantastical visual language. At a time when authoritarian forces are on the rise across the world and women’s right to control their own bodies is under pressure, her images feel more relevant than ever. The exhibition Paula Rego – Dance Among Thorns presents Rego’s powerful and unsettling body of work in its full breadth. The catalogue includes all works on display and a collection of new texts by the exhibition’s curator Kari J. Brandtzæg as well as by Catarina Alfaro, Isabel Freire and Jennifer Higgie. Together, they sketch an intense and nuanced portrait of an artist who never ceased to challenge – whether aesthetically or politically.

"I have an old camera with which I have taken countless photographs of myself. It often produces astonishing effects", Edvard Munch states in a 1930 interview. "Someday when I am old and have nothing better to do than work on an autobiography, all my photographic self-portraits will see the light of day again." The autobiography was never realised, but the self-portraits have found their way to the pages of The Experimental Self. The Photography of Edvard Munch, which demonstrates the fundamentally experimental nature of the artist’s photographic practice. As a photographer, Munch embraced the freedom provided by the amateur position, and the unpredictable aspects of analogue photographic technology. By playfully approaching his own image in picture after picture, Munch extends his explorations of self-hood in other media through photography. The resulting photographs provide unique access to Munch’s radical artistic vision, which this book studies through eminent essays by Patricia G. Berman, Tom Gunning and MaryClaire Pappas.

Through a selection of Edvard Munch works the Norwegian award-winning author Lene Ask invites children of all ages to draw and be creative together with Munch. The book has texts by Ask accompanied by exercises that are related to Munch’s way of experimenting and encourage children to participate in the wonderful world of Munch’s art. Design by Aslak Gurholt, one of Norway's most renowned and award-winning book designers.Ages 8+

Edvard Munch wrote his whole life, but most of his texts remained in the drawer. In only an instant, significant voices from a range of different fields – from visual art to music, critique and astrophysics – enter into dialogue with one of these unpublished texts. Through the contributors’ diverse reactions to Munch’s text, the book explores the potential of the sketch-like and unfinished. With contributions by Sumaya Jirde Ali, Arif, Hilde Bøe, Øystein Elgarøy, Marit Grøtta, Nils-Øivind Haagensen, Jeanine El Khawand, Mette Henriette, Felipe 'Fela' Orellana, Manuel Pelmus, Morten Strøksnes, Constance Tenvik, Ahmed Umar, and Gunnhild Øyehaug.

Morten Andersen’s photo book follows the development of a collaborative project between Satyricon’s Sigurd Wongraven and MUNCH. The project explores the intersection between images and music, and so does the photo book. In Andersen’s characteristic visual language, the book documents the visuality of Wongraven’s work process as well as the musicality of Edvard Munch’s images.  The Norwegian band Satyricon was formed in 1991 and is today one of the world’s most famous black metal bands. They have produced work straddling many genres throughout their career and collaborated with well-known artists and ensembles such as Anja Garbarek, Trondheimsolistene, and The Norwegian National Opera Chorus. Now you can experience the band in relation to Norway’s most famous artist – Edvard Munch. The selected works of art draw on existential themes, but also rhythms and waves, which are features we recognise from the world of music. The intersection of Munch’s expressive motifs and Satyricon’s baseline-heavy music creates room for thought and reflection that goes beyond the realm of black metal alone. Just like Munch, Satyricon’s approach is open and inquisitive, constantly evolving.