Munch’s Landscape and Life

The title of this blog is my English translation of Lebenslandschaft, the motto in German the curator had given Edvard Munch's paintings exhibited in Potsdam's Barberini Museum. In contrast, the English subtitle is Trembling Earth.

Remember my recent trip to Potsdam? The Edvard Munch exhibition was the highlight of our visit.

Our coach on Alter Markt (Old Market) in front of St. Nicholas Church

The Museum Barberini is just opposite St. Nicholas Church

Before we started the visit to the exhibition, we had an excellent introduction. An art expert explored Munch's inner linking between the landscape and the people living within.

He started with The Yellow Trunk (1912), which lies cut between living spruce trees whose violet bark has a structure resembling cells. Munch thus represents death and life, celebrates the growth of the trees, and hints at the destruction of the Norwegian forests. Still, yellow is Munch's color of life.

©Wikipedia

Let me become chronological. One of Munch's first and most well-known paintings is The Scream (1893), which was not displayed at the exhibition.

The Scream 1895 (Click to enlarge)

Instead, we saw a lithograph with the German title Das Geschrei (The Clamor or The Screaming), which means it is not a scream of a few seconds but rather continuous. Munch writes about an experience that inspired him in German, "Ich fühlte das grosse Geschrei durch die Natur (I felt a tremendous, endless cry go through nature.)"

The figure is part of the agitated landscape. It covers its ears to block out the scream - but it does not succeed: nature's pain seizes it. 

Was Munch inspired by St. Paul's letter to the Romans? We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now, and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope, we were saved [Romans 8,22-25:22].

Metabolism (Life and Death) 1896

The scream raises questions about humankind's interaction with nature. On the other side of Munch's spectrum is the sun, the elemental force, energy provider, and the foundation of all life on Earth. Under the sun's influence, new life is fertilized out of a decomposing corpse and growing in the woman's womb.

Metabolism 1916

Munch took up the topic more dramatically in later years. A corps is fertilizing seedlings showing human faces.

Funeral March 1897

And again, the sun. Naked bodies reach for the sky. A mountain of people lifts a coffin towards the light of life.

Fertility 1900

And now some color. Instead with an apple, is the woman tempting the man with her cherries? I leave further interpretations to the imagination of my readers. Throughout his life, Munch had strange relationships with women.

Self-portrait with a model on the beach at Warnemünde 1907

Bathing Men 1908

On the German Baltic Sea beach - still an Eldorado of nude culture today - Munch found many male motifs.

Self-portrait against a Blue Sky 1908

It looks like, in 1908, Edvard was at peace with himself. He stands upright and is surrounded by nature. His yellow vest reflects the sun's rays. However, we learned that Munch was in a fragile psychological state regarding sunlight as a source of health and rejuvenation. What else?

Children in the Woods 1902

Woods, especially Norway's dense and dark ones, were one of Munch's favorite motifs. Just as the woods is a leitmotif in German fairy tales with its dwarves and witches, Munch's forest partners are children, trolls, and lovers.

Towards the Forest 1915

Munch's comment: "A forest is a place where love either can break or become intimacy."

The Fairy-Tale Forest 1929

Let us read the description of the above painting at the museum: Three children enter a bright clearing. Towering spruce trees all around and the dark sky create a claustrophobic atmosphere. The poisonous green color reinforces the eerie feeling, as does the anthroposophical shape of the tree on the right. Its branches resemble the open mouth of a troll that seems to be approaching the children. 

  

Self-Portrait 1940

Edvard Munch is 77. He presents himself as an unhappy, aging man. The world is cold, and snow lies in the garden. Did he anticipate the German invasion of Norway on April 9, or had it already occurred? Munch died in January 1944.

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