iMedia: "The Scream"

Yet another painting to blog about...I believe this is my third? I suppose I just enjoy the iMedia prompt.

Anyways, this painting is called "The Scream" and was painted by artist Edvard Munch in 1893. To give a little bit of background, this was painted in Oslo, Norway, and the landscape in the background is actually Oslofjord [a bay in the south-east of Norway] seen from the hill of Ekeberg.

Though very abstract, I find that this painting is thought-provoking, to say the least. We see this person [or creature] who is agonized, worried and fearful of something. The person/creature itself is abstract: we cannot completely tell if it is a human or whether it is a male or female. His/her features are minimal; we only see eyes, a nose, a mouth, hands, and the outline of the rest of the body. Two people are behind him/her, strolling, and are seemingly calm and unaffected by whatever is bothering the main creature.

The sky is painted in fiery reds and oranges which counteracts the cool, deep blues of the water below it. In my opinion, the sky seems to be one of the mist peculiar components in the painting. The color choices are pronounced, no doubt. And the swirls along with these colors are reminiscent of a fire or some sort of explosion [like, a volcanic eruption, perhaps?]. Looking at the sky and its intensity already gives off a frantic and distraught feeling to the observer.

For me personally, I just enjoy looking at this painting. Many paintings I've seen before that I would consider "thought-provoking" were detailed, with many hidden images or messages. But "The Scream" is just so abstract. Looking and thinking about it generates so many questions that I can't answer. For example, what is bothering this creature that is making him/her so incredibly petrified? Why are the two others not affected? Is it in his/her head? Why are the surroundings distorted? Does he/she have a disorder that distorts his/her perception or his/her thinking? Why is the sky red? Why did Munch choose to leave the creature visually genderless? Did Munch find himself as this creature? What was his inspiration?

The list never ends. But that's definitely a cool thing about this painting. Who would think that such an abstract piece of art could provoke this many questions? What I also find extremely interesting is that face- at first glance, the face of that creature is the first thing your eye goes to. And it gets to you. Personally, when I first saw this, looking at that face just brought me to think about what really agonizes me, what truly worries me. That's why I think this painting can really lead to deep connections and unique perceptions by each individual. Each viewer notices something different, and there's always going to be one thing in the painting that gets to you, whether it's the creatures face, the fiery sky, the unaffected pedestrians, or the wavy distortions. And that one thing will bring some sort of deep, personal connection that helps the viewer understand the painting in a unique way.

That is my thinking, at least. I infer that Munch painted "The Scream" after either experiencing something agonizing or just dealing with something that really irritated him. And I feel like each part of the painting [the peculiar color of the sky, the unaffected people in the background, and the expression on the creature's face] has some sort of tie to a widowed image in Munch's brain. Feeling as that is possible, it seems like the whole painting is just a culmination of many widowed images, put together into one. So not only can you look at the painting and find deep meaning and connections for yourself, but also, one can infer and understand the strong emotions and experience of the painter himself.