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Madonna, Self-Portrait, Anxiety, The Death Bed, The Day After, Melancholy, The Dance of Life, The Scream. 8 others.
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Customer Reviews (4)

re Edvard Munch
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/3822859710/ref=cm_cr_rev_prod_title
AAALiving.com writes"Becoming Edvard Munch: Influence, Anxiety and Myth" at the Art Institute of Chicago challenges the comon idea that Munch was mentally unstable. Displaying approx 150 works by Munch (incl.. Self Portrait with Palette (illustrated) and his influential peers, this exhibit shows that although he was influenced by other art movements, Munch's work draws strongly on Norwegian pictorial traditions. 312-443-3600, artinstuteofchicago.org

An intensive exploration.
This book is short, only 48 pages, but is packed with an incredible amount of information and art. Zeri has done a phenomenal job of encapsulating Munch's life and work in a single, easily digestible package, one from which admirers of "The Scream" and art enthusiasts in general can learn a great deal. I would love to explore other books in Zeri's series.

beautiful book
I fell in love with Munch when I saw one of his prints(the scream) at the Met museum in NYC, this is an amazing man with an amazing mind and an eye for color.the prints are beautiful in this book.

The Best!
This is an excellent book.It explores the full spectrum of Munch's career through an interesting presentation of words and pictures. ... Read more

Product Description
Edvard Munch's images of love, alienation, jealousy, and death - universal human experiences but filtered through events in his own life - are explored through several print series in this catalogue to an exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington.
Renowned for such powerful paintings as The Scream and Madonna, Munch continually reworked his monumental themes in the graphic arts. This publication brings together nearly sixty of Munch's most important prints, from the National Gallery of Art and two exceptional private collections, demonstrating how the artist's experimental impulses and virtuosic handling of intaglio, lithography, and woodcut over the course of his lifetime endowed his haunting motifs with new meanings. Stunning reproductions reveal Munch as a master printmaker, manipulating materials and color in the service of his artistic concepts. Scholars and general readers alike will gain a much richer and more nuanced appreciation for this great Norwegian artist. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Munch printing variations
This book is actually an exhibition catalogue. I saw the exhibition in Washington DC and found the book superior to the show. Both the exhibition and the book focus on a few of Munch's prints, possibly the most famous ones, and explain how he varied his techniques and reworked a particular print, in order to produce a particular effect. Munch worked on certain images numerous times, both as paintings and as prints. This book explores his working methods.

bleak Munch master prints
The pervading sense of bleakness and sadness never ceases to disturb me when examining Edvard Munch's artistic output. This is not surprizing considering that his mother died of TB when he was 5, his beloved sister passed away aged 15 and he was raised in relative poverty by his obsessively religious father. "From him I inherited the seeds of madness". A succession of unsuccessful relationships, often with married women, would not have helped.

This catalog presents (illustrated and discussed) a number of Munch's master prints. It must be noted that many of these prints are presented in different impressions-thus the same basic design is seen in varied colorings or backgrounds. Although it is instructive to view the different forms of the same work, the total number of separate works presented is relatively limited. Munch, an astute businessman, was adept at maximising the benefits of his popular designs and presented them in a host of permutations.

The essays in this book are instructive and the color reproductions and printing quality are above average. Worth acquiring if you are a Munch enthusiast. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (4)

I love this book
I love this book.I am drawn to books about artists, as I am a writer.A woman of words, I am always trying to find balance in what I lay my eyes upon in books-- that balance of a book which gives visuals as it gives wisdom.This is one of those books.It's not a coffee table book.It is the work of an art historian who, like certain doctors, has not detached, but rather has moved further into her subject, if you will.When it comes to art historians, I want them to show me and then tell me what they know, as a result of all their years of passion in their field.Thanks to Jay Clarke, I feel like I know Munch now.I have this book next to my writing desk.It helps me to know the heart language of this man, behind his art.And in so doing, it helps me to know my own work that much better.We are all better for this sort of brave view that Jay Clarke has widened her art historian's eye to see.

Munch, Diluted By Words
This is a sumptuous catalogue of an exhibit attempting to visually place Munch in the context of the art world of his times.As such it proves a great opportunity for the Art Institute of Chicago to show off some of their excellent print holdings.I wish the volume was a little more generous with the size of the reproductions, but I suppose that's the difference between a $50 artbook and a $75 one.

While the accompanying essay imparts some interesting information (I knew nothing of the Norwegian tradition of Blue Mood Paintings), it unfortunately takes the show's conceit and goes full throttle to DeconstructionLand.It's as though the author is hoping to make a name for himself, or at least get another merit badge, by debunking the myth of Munch as the isolated mad genius.As if that myth has held any currency in decades!

Isolated:Well, duh, Munch lived in Berlin and Paris and traveled Europe widely and wildly and fairly incessantly.That's no secret.He saw, say, some Gauguins, and there was surely a bit of influence.But in the essay the author takes the supporting evidence (the works of the other artists also hanging) and tries to tie them directly to specific Munch pieces.That gets pretty silly pretty fast, especially when repetitively such assertions are amended with the observation that Munch coulda woulda shoulda might've maybe seen X work at the Y gallery or the A work at the B museum.Nothing like such sloppy loose conjecture presented as proof to kill a hypothesis.

Mad:By insisting Munch's careful handling of his career and public image proves he was perfectly sane, the author stupidly steps back 100 years to the black-or-white age of mental health.Since then, we've learned there is much gray in between.Consider a man who witnessed the death of his mother, and sister, from TB.Who had another sister placed in a mental asylum.Who wound up thankful for a bit of electroshock himself.Who wrote voluminous letters to prospective buyers.Who mostly refused to have any gallery, or agent, contractually represent him.Who, when he wound up having to sell one of his "Frieze of Life" paintings, would just paint another version.Check out the photos (not in this volume) of his open-air winter studio, thinking the harsh elements were beneficial to the canvases.While clearly functional, it seems nonsense to argue that Munch wasn't quite a few bottles short of a case.

Genius:Is this even in dispute?Check out the surfaces of his paintings.The scrubbed down yet drippy pigment.The canvases covered in a way that had never been done before, and that indeed anticipated treatment many decades in the future.

Text, and the slight inferiority of reproductions aside, this is a volume well-worth the purchase.It contains a number of Munch's paintings I'd never seen before, despite the monographs on my shelves.And again, thanks to the Art Institute of Chicago for opening a door into their Prints collection.While I'm sure there's surely a fat expensive volume devoted to Munch's graphic works, this is a very nice introduction.

Losing My Nuance
My purpose in this review is to evaluate this exhibition and its accompanying essay.A potential buyer of this book must distinguish between the product descriptive abstract and a review. While Clarke states she offers "surprising connections and influences", and seeks to "resusitate forgotten nuance in his work," I do not see this book a a good perspective on Munch's work.

The book reproduces well enough for $32.00 the 145 pieces from the show, 27 Munch prints from the Museum's collection, 60 other Munch paintings, drawings and prints from various sources, and 58 pieces by other artists, 22 of which are also from the Museum's collections.These are the pieces used to show "influences."This show closed on April 26, 2009, just 20 days before the grand opening of the new Renzo Piano wing at the Museum of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Jay Clarke has reverted to "influences" in a trope style of the Warburg Institute (Panofsky, Wolfflin) in an attempt to dethrone the assumed monographic identity of the artist.She does this using a line of thought like Thomas Crow writing on Gericault: "[The singularity of an artist] is itself a quality that must be put together from bits and pieces of already existing models. And the more one knows about the ambitious young artists who came immediately before him, the less idiosyncratic [the artist's] impulses seem."Nineteenth Century Art

The real problem is that the anxiety of influence belongs to Harold Bloom, The Anxiety of Influence The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry;Deconstruction and Criticism.I suppose she does this by disassociating the "anxiety" from the "influence" to make it look like generic thought, instead of what it is.

Bloom writes: ""Influence" is a metaphor, one that implicates a matrix of relationships- imagistic, temporal, spiritual, psychological- all of them ultimately defensive in nature.What matters most....is that the anxiety of influence comes out of a complex act of strong misreading, a creative interpretation that I call "poetic misprision." What writers [artists] may experience as anxiety , and what theiir works are compelled to manifest, are the consequence of poetic misprision, rather than the cause of it. The strong misreading comes first; there must be a profound act of reading that is a kind of falling in love with a literary [artistic] work.That reading is likely to be idiosyncratic and it is almost certain to be ambivalent, though the ambivalancemay be veiled."

Bloom finishes by saying that we would have less Keats without Shakespeare, Milton, and Wordsworth, no Tennyson without Keats, and no Wallace Stevens without Whitman, even though Stevens was "hostile to all suggestions that he owed anything to his precursor poets [artists].

Jay Clarke's show also borrows heavily from two previous French Musee D'Orsay Shows, in spirit and content: Rodolphe Rapetti and Arne Eggum's collaboration on Munch in ParisMunch: Et La France (French Edition),from which Clarke lifts two of Rapetti's visual comparisons, an act of museum curatorship/authorship, without specific acknowledgement,and Serge Lemoine's massive "lineage of influence" show in Venice which attempted to show that Modernism's father was Puvis de Chavannes, not CezanneToward Modern Art: From Puvis de Chavennes to Matisse and Picasso.


Munch came to France "influenced" by the Norwegians Jaeger and Krogh, and though he looked up to France as Rapetti (and Jens Thiis) point out, he bounced through France faster than a steel ball falling to the bottom of a Pachinko machine. No engagement, not much studio or studio crits. Clarke does expand our view of Germany in this discussion. But in general, offering various representations of people kissing, looking out windows, bathing and swimming, this is expoiting the credulity of the public while trying to reform it. There is no way to get from Munch the Realist to Munch the Symbolist by way of Monet, or many of the other works used as influence in this show.

This show comes on the heals of three other recent shows which have dealt with all of these issues: The Symbolist Prints of Edvard Munch: The Vivian and David Campbell Collection (Prelinger/Parke-Taylor/Schjeldahl),After the Scream: The Late Paintings of Edvard Munch (Prelinger), Edvard Munch: The Modern Life of the Soul (McShine/Heller/Berman/Yarborough.)

Ever since the 60's, when I encountered the Munch Museet only three years after opening it doors, the writing of Arne Eggum, Ragna Stang, and Reinhold Heller, added to by Elizabeth Prelinger in the current generation,have served only to expand our view of the artist, the period, and the Norwegian nation.

In contrast to Clarke's assertions of reform, this is just another Munch show, maybe one too many. It isthe way it is because the Director and the Curator made it that way.It attracts visitors to the museum, who might come back to see the new wing of the museum.Those visitors will see the "Scream" again, and see the good people of Oslo walking west on the north side of Karl Johan's Gate down from the Storting at sunset, with their anxious eyes, because the curators have put these paintings there once again...You can't have it both ways...

Clarke reminds me of Mary Louise Elliot Krumrine writing on Cezanne, Paul Cezanne: The Bathers, who might be Clarke's mentor, as Clarke gives her a nod using a gratuitous comment about Munch and misogyny similar to that which appears in Krumrine's model of Cezanne. This turns into an epithet overlaying scholarship.

Abilgail Solomon-Godeau, writing on Gauguin, offers a better model for the evolution of communicating "what the public needs to know."See her two essays, the infamous article "Going Native", Art in America LXXVII, 07/89, followed 20 years later by her essay in the catalog of the recent Rome Gauguin show at the Complesso del Vittoriano, Paul Gauguin: Artist of Myth and Dream (Eisenman).

Who was Edvard Munch?
The catalogue for an exhibition held until april 2009 at the Art Institute in Chicago, this book is an interesting study that tries to debunk the myth surrounding the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch. Far from being the reclusive and emotionally unstable artist that history has made out of him, he actually revealed a keen sense of the world that surrounded him, and especially of the art world. The authors of the book emphasize the fact that Munch, contrary to what he wanted the public to believe, was the subject of many influences, whether by Van Gogh, Gauguin, Ensor, Whistler, Klinger, and many more. Several chapters strive to explain the real Munch, in his relationship to the artists who were his contemporaries, in his attitude towards the market and in the way he succeeded in creating a myth around himself and his art.

The illustrations are numerous, almost all of them in color, however, very few are full-page and there are almost no close-ups. Therefore, only 4 stars instead of 5... ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (8)

Well written and informative!
Biographies that are well researched are often dull and the lively ones are often loose with the facts. This book is an exception. It is very readable, yet relies on extensive research. The author combines the qualities of novelist and art historian. Sue Prideaux also places Munch within the context of the social, historical and artistic movements of the time. Anyone interested in the life and work of Edvard Munch should read this book. Highly recommended!

Edvard Munch's endlessly fascinating life

Munch's correlation between life and artistic work is unusually close.
He created a body of work that was intensely personal.

Sue Prideaux introduces the reader to what kind of person has created
this extraordinary art and she does it very well.This compelling book
reveals the life and work of a fascinating man and is invaluable for
anyone interested in a captivating saga.

Excellent service.
The book - as promised an excellent paperback copy, in very good condition - arrived earlier than I expected and it was beautifully packaged.I would be more than happy (based on this experience) to buy again from the same source.

This Is The Best Profile of Munch
As a long time fan of Edvard Munch's art, this is the best of all the biographies I've read about the artist including his own private dairy. "The Private Journals of Edvard Munch: We Are Flames Which Pour Out of the Earth" by Munch and translated by J. Gill Holland (no relation to this reviewer) should also be checked out by Munch admirers. Sorry about that digression--back to this wonderful biography. Sue Prideaux's nearly four-hundred page history first caught my attention on the "New Releases" tables of at the Boston Antheaum. After leafing through the volume, I immediately ordered my own copy because I knew it was a book in which I'd want to dog-ear pages and scribble comments in the book's margins. The beginning of the book was difficult to read. Munch's father was a religious zealot who made his living as a physician. Unfortunately, even with his own family, he seemed more interested in saving a person's soul than sometimes saving their life or curing them of their ailments. His very fanaticism overwhelmed Young Edvard Munch and the rest of his family. Munch's mother and sister died of TB and he himself barely survived it in his youth. The author's description of life in the Munch household was so depressing that it almost made me stop reading. It was certainly not a good advertisement for practicing this brand of Christianity.It's little wonder that in adulthood Edvard Munch became addicted to acholol and drugs. He was afraid to give them up because he felt his inspiration was one of the results of the drunken fog that often enveloped him. Once he finally committed himself for treatment, he was forced to clean up his act and he discovered his inspiration wasn't coming from a bottle. This book is a wonderful portrait of Munch and the era in which he lived. Germany was the country that first recognized and rewarded his genius. Munch's many phobias make him a fascinating character to study. Considering his own personal demon's, his artworks are actually quite tame. Learn why when he begrudingly sold one of his paintings, he'd immediatley paint another version to replace that lost child at his dinner table. Even though the Nazi's ordered all his work to be destroyed, Hilter's chief aides praised and collected it for their personal collections. Throughout the book the reader can only be amazed that either Munch or his work actually managed to survive the chaos that surrounded him during his entire lifetime. He was certainly an eccentric by any definition of the term.

to the right of the crows' beak in the harbor,is it the heart shaped bearded face of Hans Jaeger. who is Hans Jaeger?
I realize that a work of art such as the "Scream" should not be dissected but seen as a whole,but this work of Munch's invites it,especially after reading this book.There's a cornucopia of hidden events of Munch's life placed into this picture,only a few of which i've been able to find.This painting was made at a critical point in Munch's life when he was dabbling in the occult mixed with"alcoholic creativity" and the work reflects it,in an artistic, interesting way.I was fortunate enough to see the Munch exhibit when it was on tour around 1980 and i remember vividly the impact that his paintings had on myself as well as others particularly "The Sick Child". While "The Scream" seems like the showstealer really all of his paintings are as equally profound. This book gives the story and the struggle behind Munch's work in a thoughtful and readable way with alot of research.Now when i gaze at the scream i see a large black raven hovering over and dominating the picture,the bloody face of a suicide gazing from a surrealistic green,and a dark figure from Munch's past dreesed in black on the left border,one Munch would have wanted to forget if he could. Then there is the "red sky",is that a red sky in the morning,"sailor take warning,or a red sky at night,"sailor delight". Seeing as the 2 ships in the harbor appear to be beginning a swirl into a maelstrom,what do you think?Then there is the almost undistinguishable image of the bird,(a stork or crane?) encased in white yellow running through the red sky. The perfect nightmare graphically drawn.Also there is an unmistakeable image of a smalltooth sawfish that dominates the painting,an STS. Another type of STS is the Serological Test for Syphilus(STS),developed by the Jewish bacteriologist,Albert Neisser who resided in Norway during this period.Since many of Munch's nihilist "friends"contracted this disease,(including Jaeger),is Munch telling us something here or retelling himself? Really gives a person something to scream about!! I'm not even an art critic but after reading this book i've taken a new read on Munch's work.Soo enjoy and happy nightmares!!!or maybe the figure on the bridge is screaming in spiritual ecstasy as it appears to be a ghost bathed in light,maybe seeing its true nature despite the negativity.All of this bathed in numerous shades of greens,yellows,reds,blues,and dark shadows. The author said that Munch kept his paintings close to him because they were his children and would only sell a painting out of dire necessity and even then would try to retieve it later.Even the Nazis didn't know what to make of Munch banning his works as decadent art,yet Goebbels himself openly admiring and fascinated by much of Edwards art.Yet Munch was too much the true artist to get involved with politics and although Norway was sympathetic to the Nazis Munch kept his distance from them.It is amazing how when i gaze upon the "Scream" now i can see the motion of the colors,like a dream on Canvas.I never saw any of this until i read this book. ... Read more

Product Description
Scandinavia’s most famous painter, the Norwegian Edvard Munch (1863–1944), is probably best known for his painting The Scream, a universally recognized icon of terror and despair. (A copy was stolen from the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway, in August 2004, and has not yet been recovered.) But Munch considered himself a writer as well as a painter. Munch began painting as a teenager and, in his young adulthood, studied and worked in Paris and Berlin, where he evolved a highly personal style in paintings and works on paper. And in diaries that he kept for decades, he also experimented with reminiscence, fiction, prose portraits, philosophical speculations, and surrealism. Known as an artist who captured both the ecstasies and the hellish depths of the human condition, Munch conveys these emotions in his diaries but also reveals other facets of his personality in remarks and stories that are alternately droll, compassionate, romantic, and cerebral.

This English translation of Edvard Munch’s private diaries, the most extensive edition to appear in any language, captures the eloquent lyricism of the original Norwegian text. The journal entries in this volume span the period from the 1880s, when Munch was in his twenties, until the 1930s, reflecting the changes in his life and his work. The book is illustrated with fifteen of Munch’s drawings, many of them rarely seen before. While these diaries have been excerpted before, no translation has captured the real passion and poetry of Munch’s voice. This is a translation that lets Munch speak for himself and evokes the primal passion of his diaries. J. Gill Holland’s exceptional work adds a whole new level to our understanding of the artist and the depth of his scream. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Some Insights Into the Painter's Mind
While reading poetry is not one of my favorite activities, I was drawn to this volume because of my continuing interest in Edvard Munch's paintings and the mind behind them. Therefore the material in the book that interested me most were the insights into the artist's character and his personal reports of some of his own life experiences. It's always useful to have the originator of a piece of art spell out exactly what was going through his mind at the moment he was in the act of creation. Although discussing his tendency to talk the ears off some of his intimates, he was at the same time often silent and preferred working alone. He complained of constantly having beautiful women distract him in his studio by arriving and then standing between him and what he was trying to paint while disrobing in order to steal his valuable work time merely to satisfy their own selfish lust.Most of us would not consider this a problem but more of a gift from heaven, but then we aren't Edvard Munch.
There are various types of prose and poetry included in this 200-page translation of selected sections from Munch's fifty years of journal keeping.Some of the material flows as easily as water running down a mountainside and navigating some of it is more like shooting the rapids in pitch darkness. Munch took his personal note keeping very seriously as the title of his journal indicates. "We Are Flames Which Pour Out Of The Earth" is not a title for something the author considered light reading. One-segment details witnessing a butcher slaughter an ox. That's not the kind of bedtime reading most people treasure.
In another segment Munch meets Ibsen at one of his exhibitions and explains what he was attempting with some of the paintings about which Ibsen is curious. This happened to be several paintings from his life frieze. Later, he notes that Ibsen uses the meeting and fictionalizes what was discussed in his "When We Dead Awaken."
There is something for everyone in this translation. Some of it seems almost as obscure and disturbing as the artist's paintings, but that's okay. The reader will finish the book with some new insights into the artist and his work. Fifteen of Munch's lesser known visual works are also pictured in the book including one of my favorite woodcuts with gouging, "Man's Head beneath Woman's Breast." Another of my personal favorites, "The Brooch, Eva Mudocci" is also reproduced. This is a must-read for anyone who is truly interested in the man who was Edvard Munch, but be prepared to work a little. This doesn't read as easily as Tolstoy, Margaret Mitchell or Stephen King.

More Poems than a Journal
Munch Journal talks about his tormented relationship with Frou L and his unique view of the world through the eyes of a painter and a poet. It's not exactly very autobiographical.

An absolute must-read for anyone fascinated by Edvard Munch's life and brilliant work
The Private Journals Of Edvard Munch: We Are Flames Which Pour Out Of The Earth is an anthology of writings by Scandinavia's most famous painter, Edvard Munch (1863-1944), perhaps best known for his classic capture of raw human terror in "The Scream". Excerpts taken from his diaries from the 1880s to the 1930s offer poetry that is bursting with the raw pathos of the human condition. Expertly translated by J. Gill Holland, these powerful verses are illustrated with Munch's original black-and-white sketches. Highly recommended for library collections, and an absolute must-read for anyone fascinated by Edvard Munch's life and brilliant work.

journals reveal origins and sources of this famous artist's work
As the subtitle which is lines from one of Munch's poems indicates, the Norwegian painter could write poetry that was as vividly intense as many of his paintings, notably his signature painting "The Scream." "The sky was like/blood--sliced with strips of fire..." are lines from another poem of his. The format of all of the sections from Munch's journals edited by the poet and literary critic Holland are broken into lines as if the content was entirely poems. But it is not. Munch's varied entries are perceptive on local events and persons of the day, his relationships with others, self-examination and self-discovery, and psychological insights. "The nervous talk a lot. Craziness often expresses itself in incessant talking. Talking has become...a sort of defense against other people...When I am talking I tax anyone I am with, as if I've taken him prisoner," he writes in the entry titled "On Talking." A friend of the famous writers Ibsen and Knut Hamsen, Munch appreciated the power of words and the skill of writers. He obviously took care to write as precisely and truly as he could, even for his "private journals"; here published more extensively than ever with a faithful, empathetic translation and concise introduction. With these journals, one sees behind the revolutionary paintings to the mind of the extraordinary painter who could make them. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (2)

mystical munch
This book is in reality historical fiction, but based generously on the letters and journal entries of Edvard Munch.In some ways it is like a psychodrama given the complex emotional make-up of the painter.I read it slowly in order to absorb all the nuances created by the author. Ketil Bjornstad wrote as if he were a personal friend of Munch's. I found myself stopping frequently to study the paintings described in the book.

Style that mirrors the painter
Bjrstad did a wonderful job portraying Munch with his style and prose. This dark book is a fabulous read, especially for fans of art history and Edvard Munch. The book does not read like the average novel, but the style is quickly and easily adapted too. I strongly recommend this book. ... Read more

Product Description
Though he is more often viewed as a semi-lunatic Symbolist or proto-Expressionist, the great Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (1863-1944) was in fact a forerunner of much Modern art. His works concentrate on the human dramas of love and death, and on contemporary conditions of claustrophobia and alienation--or what he called "the modern life of the soul"--frequently deploying contemporary effects to depict this condition. He worked in paint, printmaking and photography (though he once wrote that "the camera cannot compete with a brush and canvas, as long as it can't be used in heaven and hell"). Edvard Munch: Signs of Modern Art assesses the significance of Munch's oeuvre as a highly independent contribution to Modern art, drawing on more than 100 paintings, as well as 60 drawings and prints. In flouting the boundaries between the genres of painting and printmaking, in his work with photography and film, and through his emphasis on process--for example exposing his paintings to outdoor weather--Munch opened up a turn-of-the-century view of the future. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A lovely tribute to Munch, kudos to Hatje-Cantz
When I first saw this book I was immediately won over. The plates are large, many if not most are full page. There is much of his graphic work, the color is very good, even the text is large and very legible. Art historians have ruined the art book. They believe that their words are more important than the reproductions of the art. The art book is our only real museum, the only way most of us will ever know the great, and not-so-great, art in the world is by reproductions in art books. I will never have the money to tour London, Berlin, St. Petersburg, Tokyo, etc. Books are the only way most of us will know these creations. I hope Hatje Cantz will continue this format, large, beautiful plates, and large, spare text.

Mostly good
Images are good, but some of them are very small.They are not page size.The biggest are 26x19 cm, and the smallest 13.5x10 cm. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

Wonderful
I had the privilege of seeing this exhibit at the Huntarian Museum in Glasgow, and bought the book instantly.
The selection is small but brilliant, and Black's commentary is outstanding - I rarely "read" an art book, buthe is a good writer with a true feel for Munch.
One of my favorite parts is the section on the inspiration for the Vampire woodcut.

The print quality is high, but my one quibble is that the contrast is a tad low, so that the prints don't quite pop like the originals.

With better Munch print books now going at $400 upwards, this book is a steal. ... Read more

Product Description
In an exploration of modern existential experience unparalleled in the history of art, Edvard Munch, the internationally renowned Norwegian painter, printmaker and draftsman, sought to translate personal trauma into universal terms and in the process to comprehend the fundamental components of human existence: birth, love and death. Inspired by personal experience, as well as by the literary and philosophical culture of his time, Munch radically reconceived the given world as the product of his imagination. This book explores Munchís unique artistic achievement in all its richness and diversity, surveying his career in its entire developmental range from 1880 to 1944. The comprehensive volume features a lavish selection of color plates, an introduction by Kynaston McShine, Chief Curator at Large at The Museum of Modern Art, and essays by Patricia Berman, Reinhold Heller, Elizabeth Prelinger, and Tina Yarborough, as well as in-depth documentation of Munchís art and career. It will accompany the most extensive exhibition of Munchís art in America in three decades. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The Modern's Munch
With over 400 plates each, the Eggum and Stang older publications reign at the top of Munch comprehensive monographs, probably not to be repeated.

However, this is about the most comprehensive and digestable form of Munch currently available in print in this country, with 156 plates in the catalog and five great essays, all well thought out interesting additions to Munch literature.

Reinhold Heller's essay is worth the price of the book itself(beyond the plates).Having written extensively in the past on Munch, Edvard munch; Symbols & ImagesandEdvard Munch : The Frieze of Life Heller furnishes a complete explication of the creation of the "Scream" which has not appeared to my knowledge in so many words, in Eggum or anywhere else. The detail of the essay practically effaces other explantions of this iconic work, which literally swim in muddled post-modern liguistics about who the screamer is, or what the credibility of Munch's editorial explanation of the piece is. Having spent a year in Norway, I assumed that anyone could have Munch's tag line explanation of this simply by experiencing the decay of the summer solstice into the winter.Heller's essay has been the first written piece to enrich my primary experience of it.

Elizabeth Prelinger repeats once again her expertise in her long time pursuit of Munch's graphics Edward Munch: Master Printmaker 1983,The Symbolist Prints of Edvard Munch: the Vivian and David Campbell Collection [By] Elizabeth Prelinger and Michael Parke-Taylor. With an essay by Peter Schjeldahl. Feb.-May 1997.]]

Tina Yarborough offers interesting exhibition history from about 1908 to the 1920's.This type of essay, also appearing in Prelinger's "Symbolist Prints",is likely to continue to provide interest to everyone, until all the material is covered.

Patricia Berman offers what amounts to the title essay, and Munch's own line, the modern life of the soul, by explicating spiritual and existential issues that condense around Munch's concept of the locus and significance of his voice as a creative being.

Must have!
This was one of the greatest art exhibits I have ever seen (and I have been around the world) and this book is a comprehensive look at the stages and series of the paintings of Munch that were featured.Engaging and engrossing! ... Read more

Product Description
Long before the first theories of psychoanalysis were formulated, Edvard Munch (1863-1944) became the pioneer of an art which discovered and depicted the inner conflicts of modern man.The initiator of the movement known as Expressionism, Munch's work was greeted with indignation and incomprehension. But by 1902 he had achieved recognition in artistic circles on the Continent and was considered a leader of the new art. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Strengths and weaknesses
As the other reviewers noted, Hodin's book is heavy on personal information regarding the artist but low on color reproductions.

Given that, I think this is a good book for somebody who already knows a little about Munch and his work.A better introductory book, in my opinion, is Taschen's Munch, by Ulrich Bischoff.It has less information, as it is shorter (and less expensive), but almost all of the reproductions are in color.I believe color reproductions are critical in getting a feel for any artist's work but that this is particularly the case regarding the work of an artist such as Munch.

Hodin's book would seem to be a good follow-up to one such as Taschen's, providing more information on both the artist and his work.

Colorful Writing for a Monochrome Book
Often times, in the art world, pedantry and an overwrought sense of aesthetics make anything written on the subject unbearable for all but the snobbiest.Fortunately for the rest of rest, Mr. Hodin wrote this book. He is an engaging, lucid writer who has studied his subject thoroughly andactually knew Edvard Munch in his later years which enables him to offer agood deal of important personal information that other authors are simplynot able to do. This additional insight is important, for Edvard Munch isone of the truly original geniuses of art and his work carries an urgentmessage for the dissociated psyche of modern man.My only complaint withthis volume is that the publisher elected to print only about one third ofthe prints in color which, while unfortunate, is by no means devastating.If youre interested in this greatest of expressionists and interested indelving into the spiritual crisis of modern man, I cannot recommend thisbook highly enough. On the other hand, if youre an elitist art criticlooking for stodgy literature, look elsewhere this is not your book.

Discover the world of Edvard Munch
An excellent and scholarly work covering all of Munch's work. Over 160 plates are discussed in depth and there are cross references to the wherabouts of each of the plates at the end of the book. The major fault isthe lack of colour plates (30), and the relativly poor quality of thereproductions but all in all a valuable and comprehensive work. ... Read more

Product Description
Edvard Munch is famous for his prints, particularly "The Scream" and "Madonna". This work considers Munch's graphic work through the lens of a private collection, which includes impressions of virtually all of his major prints, along with alternative versions and early states.Amazon.com Review
The artwork in The Symbolist Prints of Edvard Munch is so beautifully reproduced that one might be tempted to tear out pages, frame them and hang them on the wall. Munch's work, which constitutes some of the 20th century's greatest printmaking, is presented through the lens of an extraordinary private collection that includes almost every one of his prints along with alternate versions and early sketches. Elizabeth Prelinger's essays provide background on Munch's life, printmaking techniques, and the development of his symbolist aesthetic. An exciting element of the book is an evocative essay by renowned critic, Peter Schjeldahl, who, in inimitable style, likens Munch's effect on the viewer to that of listening to the early work of a favorite rock-star. Published on the occasion of an exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario in early 1997, this book provides excellent documentation of an artist whose work remains vital more than fifty years after his death. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Art Books are not created equal
Reinhold Heller has called this book "A unique and visually handsome contribution to the literature on the graphic images of one of the greatest pintmakers of this century"(20th). For people interested in the artist and high quality production and content, this book is a step above most all other art books, especially other Yale catalog publications, such as After The Scream - The Late Paintings of Edvard Munch and Becoming Edvard Munch: Influence, Anxiety, and Myth (Art Institute of Chicago), inexpensive art catalog memorabilia for attendees of the shows they represent.

This book does not pander to the audience about its material or purpose, which is to permanently catalog this private collection of prints. It was created by the collectors and benefactors of the exhibition, David and Vivian Campbell, unimpeded by copyright costs, book production and marketing costs, possible bad writing, design and reproduction, to insure that the art has been transmitted in its fullest measure in a vehicle that can be purcased by anyone- buy a hardcover and keep it for posterity!

Elizabeth Prelinger writes the key essay on the Symbolist Art generation.She follows several writers in articulating this, including Aurier writing on Gauguin (1891), Emmanuel Goldstein, poet and friend of the artist, writing in 1891 and Natasia Staller writing in 1994.

Staller:"The idea of a separate parallel language that was coherent in itself, composed of a fictive manipulated alphabet of lines and colors, was shared, with variations, by the entire Symbolist generation.The complex play between the two languages and multiple meanings, coupled with the extreme visual complexity of such works, demands that we decipher them, like a puzzle, over time."

Goldstein to Munch:"All I have to do is think of Naturalism and Realism and all that other sham-filled art, and I am nauseated...Salvation will come from Symbolism, that is to say, a artistic tendency in which the artist imposes his domination onto reality, so that it is his servant, not visa versa.Symbolism is the art that values moods and thoughts above all else, and uses reality only as a symbol... No longer should a visual presentation of conventional reality be given, but rather a visual presentation of what lives in the mind...The reality thus dipicted will be solely symbols of thoughts and feelings."

Prelinger:"Symbolist Art, often hermetic, and even elitest, sometimes teeters uncomfortably between an intensely personal and universal vision.The stongest examples, as in Munch's art, succeed at being both."

Two other essayists are included: Michael Parke-Taylor for the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto staff, documenting the exhibition history of Edvard Munch in North America during the 20th century; and Peter Scheldahl who gives another succinct and thoughtful piece on the artist.

La douleur, la couleur et le criard
Il montrait sa soeur Sophie qui mourait jeune, entouree de toute la famille. Mais il montrait chacun a l'age qu'il avait a l'epoque de la peinture, et non pas a la mort de la jeune fille. Car la douleur durait a jamais et unifiait toute la famille pour toujours. Puis avec des tetes d'une femme et d'un homme, gravees et multicolorees, il cessait de suivre le style repandu des japonais de faire une seule couleur d'un seul troncon de bois. Son prefere de tout son oeuvre etait Sick Child II, en tant que sa premiere lithographie en couleur. Mais son Scream est le plus reconnu, en tant que l'image la plus frappante du 20eme siecle.

The Print and the Darkness
He was bound determined not to paint people reading and women knitting, but instead to show people who breathed emotions into his darkly suggestive prints. "Death in the sickroom" showed family members at the ages when they were painted, not when his sister Sophie died; it expressed unity in grief as one of death's longlasting effects by seemingly overlapping planes flowing together across bleakly empty areas, starkly B&W contrasts, and stiffly posed mourners frozen in misery. "The mirror" heads of a disembodied man and woman was his first woodcut to give up the Japanese method of printing each color with a separate woodblock; instead, he jigsawed blocks into pieces according to compositional design, linked each piece with a different color, and put everything back together into a multicolored print. He considered his "Sick child II" his most important print: his first color lithograph, it focused on the diseased upper chest and the head in profile facing right against a large pillow in order to gaze with tragically meditative resignation into the flatly patterned looming void on the far right. However, his "Scream" became the most compelling image for the late twentieth century: it expressed terror before the universe by powerfully decorative lines reverberating through the starkly opposed black lines and bleakly white voids of pulsing land and sky. Elizabeth Prelinger and Michael Parke-Taylor have applied reader-friendly illustrations and text to their catalog of the Vivian and David Campbell exhibition. Their SYMBOLIST PRINTS OF EDVARD MUNCH goes down good with PROGRESSIVE PRINTMAKERS by Warrington Colescott and Arthur Hove, PRINTS AND PRINTMAKING by Antony Griffiths, EDVARD MUNCH by Josef Paul Hodin, and THE PRINT IN THE WESTERN WORLD by Linda C Hults. ... Read more

Product Description
Expressing the anxieties of the late nineteenth century and the uncertainties of the modern world, Edvard Munch (1862-1944) often depicted in his works dangerously seductive fin de siècle women, sickly figures, and isolated characters in barren landscapes. These powerful, haunting paintings are widely recognized and revered, especially his iconic work The Scream (1893). Yet few admirers of Munch's early works realize that the artist lived well into the twentieth century and was enormously productive almost to the time of his death. This compelling book, focusing on more than sixty of Munch's later paintings, reveals the surprising, vibrant work of a fascinating man who never ceased to grow as an artist.Following decades of restless wandering among the capitals of Europe, Munch suffered a breakdown in Copenhagen in 1908 and retreated to his native Norway. In 1916 he purchased an estate near present-day Oslo where he lived and worked, mostly in his outdoor studio, for the next twenty years. Although Munch never abandoned a deeply introspective approach to image-making, in his later works he expressed a new attachment to the visible world, adopting a fresh range of subjects and a looser, brighter painting style. The pictures of this period-full of vivid color, evocative atmospheres, and visual drama-are a revelation, casting new light on one of the most complex artists of the modern era. : ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A new view of a modern master
Preliger writes swiftly and cleanly, though of course much of the book's heft is devoted to reproducing the paintings under question.She is very good at describing and clarifying how narrow our view of Munch has been; we treat him like some kind of haunted Poe or Klimt-like figure, even though the majority of his work has a golden glow like a fairy tale, and is not horror stricken as the early work we associate him with.His painting is smooth and delicate, reminding me of the clear tempera colors we used to paint Easter Eggs with when we were small children, and there is something of the innocence of a child about his mature work; it is as though having undergone the darkness early on, his spirit was allowed to soar later on.Or compare Shakespeare's late romances like The Winter's Tale or Cymbeline with the earlier and heavier problem plays (Measure for Measure) etc.In any case, brava to Elizabeth Preliger for her much needed corrective.

The first major exhibition of his works since 1978
Elizabeth Prelinger's After The Scream celebrates the late paintings of Edvard Munich: haunting paintings which also reveal quite a different side of the artist. While his images of people remain striking, he painted a range of subjects and used a brighter approach later in life, and this accompanies the first major exhibition of his works since 1978 - and the first to focus on his later achievements.

the unknown munch
munch is an artist who became so well known for an early work ("the scream") that his later work was eclipsed by it. the fact that nearly all of his later works hang in an oslo museum hasn't helped either. so it's a real surprise to browse this exhibition catalog and discover the many beautiful paintings munch created in the half century between "the scream" (1893) and his death (1944).

munch's technique is very interesting: using thinned oil paints, with direct application of single layers of color, his paintings approach watercolors in their spontaneity, light, and beautifully textured color harmonies. at the same time, his themes are very personal -- his illnesses, his large estate near oslo, his lonely life painting in the countryside, his struggle with alcoholism. technique and themes combine to give his work a uniquely poignant lyricism.

the accompanying text on munch's life and work is well written and comprehensive. this is a great gift for someone who loves painting -- even if they know art well, munch's late works will come as a happy revelation. ... Read more

Product Description
Containing more than 1,100 breathtaking reproductions of the entire graphic œuvre of Edvard Munch (1863-1944), this unique and important book is a long-awaited and essential contribution to the literature on Munch and his accomplishments as a printmaker. Nothing this complete, beautiful, and authoritative has ever been published on this enormously popular artist; the only other book available on his graphic works focuses solely on his Symbolist prints.

The scholarly text displays the exhaustive research and enormous attention to detail that have earned author Gerd Woll renown as one of the world's most respected art historians. An indispensable tool for professionals, and a stunning art book as well, this will be the standard reference on Munch's graphic work for many years to come.
1,111 illustrations, 250 in full color, 512 pages, 111/2 x 101/2"AUTORBIO: Gerd Woll is senior curator of prints and drawings at the Munch Museum, Oslo, where this vast collection of the artist's prints is housed. She is one of the world's foremost Munch experts and has written extensively on his graphic work. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Beyond Amazing
I never cared for Munch until I saw the woodblock prints in this book.
They are brilliant and edgie.This man is the father of grunge.
This bookhas the best collection of Munch's woodcuts by far.
It is a tragedy that the book is so rare it has become unaffordable for
artists who would benefit the most from seeing it.
I really hope that someone (with sensibility) will put together another
epic anthology of his woodblock prints.
If the price of this book wipes out your book budget for the next 3years,
I would still recommend it.

Spectacular resource for the dedicated scholar
If you are passionate about Munch's art, you'll enjoy this immensely. If you deal professionally in fine prints, this will be a substantial addition to your working library. For all others, it's too much and not enough.

This remarkable book is a complete catalog of prints from a very prolific printmaker - over 700 of them, from a career spanning 50 years. Each one is reproduced, B&W or color, in readily recognizable form. When significantly different states or inkings are known, each variation is shown. Thorough notes accompany each, not just medium, size, and date, but information about where it was printed and displayed, and sometimes even about the plate, block, or stone from which it was printed. Indexing, notes, and supporting material are meticulous. This volume certainly meets its goal: to represent Munch's total output of prints, to the extent that very fine scholarship possibly can.

This is just a catalog, though. The author has intentionally witheld commentary, referring readers to the large literature that already analyzes Munch's work. Reproductions are always printed well, and large enough to be easily recognized. Very few are full sized or even page sized - despite its large format, this isn't a coffee table book of the usual kind. Anyone but a serious fan will find it repetitive and disappointing as a "picture book."

//wiredweird

Outstanding, but expensive.
This is sure to become the definitive collection of Munch's graphic work. The plates are beautifully and accurately done (I've seen many of the original prints), and, as the title says, the collection is comprehensive - something which the non-enthusiast probably won't require (multiple prints from the same etching are included, along with all of Munch's later work, post nervous breakdown, that I personally find less appealing). Nevertheless, if you're serious about studying Munch, and money is not a concern, this is a tremendous resource. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Original
This is the first great publication to appear in English as a comprehensive monograph on the artist, reprinted in 1990 after iits initial appearance in English in 1979.

Why is this book important?Ragna Thiis Stang is the first Norwegian art pofessional voice to write on Munch in the post WWII era, and have her book translated into English. Moreover, she was the daughter of Jens Thiis, long time friend and supporter of Edvard Munch, which gives her voice unique authenticity.

Her book is unique in its percept and its execution.

A review of her Bibliography in the book will illustrate that Munch is not known in English until herself.Tragically she was killed in a car crash a year before the English version was printed.

This book was reprinted by Abbeville in 1990.

See my Munch in English list in the MOMA show review:Edvard Munch: The Modern Life of the Soul ... Read more

Product Description
This, the first comprehensive study of its kind, will provide both scholars and collectors of Edvard Munch’s work with an invaluable resource for further research and collecting.All lovers of Munch’s art will delight in this unique publication and find in it a source of inspiration and insight. The catalogue raisonne is based on the accumulated research of both Norwegian and international Munch scholars. Essays by leading art historians in each volume make extensive use of the most up-to-date findings and interpretations. Each volume also contains a comprehensive index, a bibliography, and a listing of exhibitions. Illustrated heavily throughout in color and black-and-white ... Read more

Product Description
Loneliness, jealousy, love, and death. There is hardly another artist who explored the basic experiences of human life and his own personal angst so forcefully and in such unsettling images as the Norwegian painter and graphic artist Edvard Munch. Munch's depictions of the crisis of the individual positioned his work as representative of modern consciousness, and the form he used to express this inner drama set him as a precursor and founder of expressionism. Munch's entire creative period is characterized by a continuous return to his central, melancholic motif of the human condition. In essays by well-known authors in the field, this volume provides a unique, complex, and expansive analysis of the emergence, development, and inner fabric of theme and variation in Munch's oeuvre. Different versions and renditions of paintings like The Scream, Melancholy, and Jealousy are presented side by side for a renewed view of these icons of modernism. Additionally, the book examines the close relationship between the artist's graphic and painterly works, acknowledging that Munch's interest in motif was not limited to painting, but that it translated meaningfully into printed media such as lithographs, etchings, and woodcuts, all documented in this book.

Edited by Klaus Albrecht Schröeder,
Essays by Christoph Asendorf, Marian Bisanz-Prakken, Dieter Buchhart, Antonia Hoerschelmann, Frank Høifødt, Iris Müller-Westermann and Gerd Woll.

Hardcover, 9.75 x 11.5 in., 416 pages, 272 color & 60 b/w illustrations ... Read more

Product Description
For the celebrated Norwegian painter Edvard Munch (1863-1944), one of the pioneers of Expressionism, the vibrant modern city of Copenhagen was both a bridge to Europe and an occasional refuge. Munch's lively exchanges with Danish artists and authors led to further intensive encounters with the art of Paul Gauguin, and also with Impressionism, Symbolism and Synthetism. During an existential crisis that began around the turn of the century and lasted until 1908, Munch time and again returned to Denmark. Rich in fascinating material, this book is the first to take a thorough look at Munch's complex relationship to this Scandinavian country, demonstrating the extent to which his Danish contacts influenced his reception of contemporary French painting, as well as his own early oeuvre. This volume presents lesser-known works made in and around Copenhagen and during Munch's seven-month stay in a psychiatric clinic. ... Read more