The Scream is a painting by Expressionist painter Edvard Munch, completed in 1893. Expressionism was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas. Expressionist artists sought to express meaning or emotional experience rather than physical reality. The Scream meets all the characteristics of the Expressionist movement, offering a strong emotional experience at the expense of deforming the physical reality.
The subjective aesthetics of the painting provides a haunting feeling of agony and anxiety. The figurative elements from the second plan are melting into state of impatience and psychedelic harmony. Closer to the central element we encounter a harsh background suggesting the minimalism of the surrounding world, while the neutral two individuals from the same background contrasts with the expressive figure of the one that screams.
The screaming figure is nor man or woman, neither human or metaphysic, but a state itself. The lack of human appearances like hair or eyebrows might enhance the anxious state and improve the expressive image or they may be just a form of indicating the negative power of the internal struggles, such a power that leads to major physical effects. The rest of the body is a form of the environment, formed by the same curved lines as the distant background indicating the emotional unsubstantiality of the body, taking the idea of emotions and moral expression further into our metaphysical condition.
Sometimes I feel like the figure from this painting, I feel like screaming, loud and clear, putting all my forces, all my inner torments into that scream, healing my fragile and tortured soul, but no matter how hard I try, no matter how tormented I am, I can’t reach the intensity of the scream depicted in this panting. That makes ne realise how intense and expressive the painting is. It makes me realise that Munch has painted an universal scream, the scream of us all, the scream of life itself, of all that’s living…
The painting has also a strong acoustic potential as it express major emotions, making me hearing a haunting scream, a scream that my mind produce under the influence of this painting, a scream that differs from man to man, a scream that is haunting in both a visual and acoustical manner, but there is no sound…
A haunting picture with a tremendous expressive potential.
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