Customer Reviews

Edvard Munch: The Modern Life of the Soul

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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!

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 & Images and Edvard 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.

I have several other books on Munch and I collect art books primarily for the color art plates (photos). From the reviews on this book, I expected more. The book pages are large but the plates are medium size, leaving tons of empty space around many painting images. The color is not very good. My other books have much better reproductions, including the excellent biography by Sue Prideaux (Edvard Munch: Behiund the Scream). Note that this biography has a limited number of color photographs but the ones that are included are very well reproduced.