#edvardmunchweek

[jonlurie]

"The Artist and His Model" 1919-21 oil on canvas by Edvard Munch (1863-1944) at @sfmoma the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Written near the painting: The models in Munch's paintings from the early 1920s, all of them younger and less powerful than the artists, occupy spaces that feel uncomfortable, perhaps even unsafe. Beginning with an inherently anxiety-inducing compositional construct, Munch would accentuate the sense of tension and exhaustion through his subjects' postures and through careful blocking of the scene. Here, for example, the distance between the figures in a messy domestic setting calls to mind a previous closeness. What appears to be a casually unmade bed at right is, in fact, a deliberate compositional element, added to impart an air of intimacy and informality to a tightly choreographed drama. #munch #edvardmunch #edvardmunchweek #sfmoma #sanfranciscomuseumofmodernart #oilpainting #oiloncanvas #theartistandhismodel (at SFMOMA San Francisco Museum of Modern Art)

[jonlurie]

"Self-Portrait with the Spanish Flu" 1919 oil on canvas by Edvard Munch (1863-1944) at #sfmoma the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Written near the painting: Depicting the artist in a decrepit state, with a mouth that hangs open, weak hands, and indistinct eyes, this canvas evokes both the psychic and physical effects of the Spanish Flu. It is unknown whether Munch, then in his fifties, actually had the illness, which caused thousands of deaths in Norway at the end of World War I, of whether the painting was a performative self-portrait intended to express sympathy with its many victims. Discussing this work with a collector, Munch asked: "Does it seem repellent?...Can you smell it?"...Can't you see that I'm close to rotting?" #munch #edvardmunch #edvardmunchweek #spanishflu #selfportrait #oilpainting #oiloncanvas #sfmoma #sanfranciscomuseumofmodernart #selfportraitwiththespanishflu (at SFMOMA San Francisco Museum of Modern Art)

[jonlurie]

"Self-Portrait: Between the Clock and the Bed" 1940-43 oil on canvas by Edvard Munch (1863-1944) at @sfmoma the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Written near the painting: Munch created this iconic painting—his last significant self-portrait—at the same moment he was making arrangements for the disposition of his art collection after his death. In April 1940, during the German occupation of Norway, Munch made an extraordinary bequest of 1,150 paintings, close to 18,000 prints, 7,70 drawings and watercolors, and 13 sculptures to the city of Oslo. He depicted himself here living among these artworks, flanked by a bed and a grandfather clock rendered with hands or numbers. Together with Munch, they are symbolic anchors of a picture that alludes to and transcends the binaries of time and eternity, birth, and death, past and present. #munch #edvardmunch #edvardmunchweek #oilpainting #oiloncanvas #betweentheclockandthebed #sfmoma #sanfranciscomuseumofmodernart #selfportrait #grandfatherclock (at SFMOMA San Francisco Museum of Modern Art)

[jonlurie]

"Self-Portrait by the WIndow" ca. 1940 oil on canvas by Edvard Munch (1863-1944) at @sfmoma the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. #munch #edvardmunch #edvardmunchweek #selfportrait #selfportraitbythewindow #oilpainting #oiloncanvas #sfmoma #sanfranciscomuseumofmodernart (at SFMOMA San Francisco Museum of Modern Art)

[jonlurie]

"Self-Portrait" 1886 oil on canvas by Edvard Munch (1863-1944) at @sfmoma the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.Edvard Munch (1863-1944) oil on canvas at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Written near the painting: Munch was 23 when he completed this self-portrait, a depiction of a confident bohemian rising in Oslo's artistic circles. The surface displays incisions and scrapes made as he explored the radical potential of his materials. By removing or disrupting layers of fully or nearly dried paint, Munch lent the work a fleshy volume. This seemingly destructive aspect of his creative process was an assertion of his canvasses as objects int eh world, not merely pictures to be seen by the eye. #munch #edvardmunch #edvardmunchweek #oilpainting #selfportrait #oiloncanvas #sfmoma #sanfranciscomuseumofmodernart (at SFMOMA San Francisco Museum of Modern Art)

[jonlurie]

"Self-Portrait with Hand under Cheek" 1911 oil on canvas by Edvard Munch (1863-1944) at @sfmoma the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Written near the painting: The bright palette and loose fluidity seen here are emblematic of Munch's paintings after his return to Norway in 1911. Having suffered a physical collapse driven by alcohol abuse, hallucinations, and partial paralysis, the painter had admitted himself to a Copenhagen clinic in 1908 for treatment by Dr. Daniel Jacobsom and remained under his care for eight months. This canvas makes reference to another artist-doctor relationship" Munch's posture with hand on cheek is a direct quotation from Vincent Van Gogh's 1890 depictions of Paul Gachet, the melancholic physician whose attempts to cure the Dutch painter ultimately proved unsuccessful. #munch #edvardmunch #selfportrait #selfportraitwithhandundercheek #sfmoma #sanfranciscomuseumofmodernart #oiloncanvas #oilpainting #paulgachet #vangoghinfluence #edvardmunchweek (at SFMOMA San Francisco Museum of Modern Art)

[jonlurie]

"Self-Portrait with a Bottle of Wine" 1906 oil on canvas by Edvard Munch (1863-1944) at @sfmoma the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Written near the painting: Munch considered this as an especially successful picture from a trying time in his life. Writing in 1909 to Norwegian art historian Jappe Nilssen, he referred to this painting as one of his best "self-scrutinies from the difficult years" in Germany. Scholars today point to this rather claustrophobic composition as a portrait of the artist in crisis, as well as the beginning of the end of Munch's early twentieth-century style, which would garner him widespread following among expressionist painters in Germany. #munch #edvardmunch #selfportrait #sfmoma #betweentheclockandthebed #edvardmunchweek (at SFMOMA San Francisco Museum of Modern Art)