"The scream"
(click on the picture for larger image)
The painting entitled “The scream”
(“Skriet”), which Munch did in 1893, is perhaps his most
famous work. The artist himself talks about the underlying experience:
“I wandered along the road with two friends – the sun
set – I felt a sort of sad breath of air – The sky suddenly
turned blood red – I stopped, leaned towards the railing, dead
tired – saw the blazing sky like blood and swords – the
black and blue fiord and the city – My friends walked along
– I stood there trembling with anguish – and I experienced
a big endless scream through nature.” A graphic version of
“The Scream” is  showed
at the exhibition in Gothenburg. The composition is simplified and
condensed in the lithograph. “The play of the lines has an
acoustic effect and visualizes the anxiety-striking cry that the
artist heard through nature,” writes Björn Fredlund about
this lithography in the exhibition catalogue.
“The Scream” still inspires people
as for example the director and play writer Dan Ying, according
to the Swedish newspaper GöteborgsPosten. Ying, who has an
own experience of mental illness, has written a monologue entitled
“A silent scream in the night” for Folkteatern in Gothenburg.
The monologue is about a woman who suffers from schizophrenia and
who just has been admitted to a psychiatric clinic. Dan Ying saw
Munch’s painting in front of himself when he wrote it, reports
GöteborgsPosten. The play will have its first performance in
the middle of November 2002.
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