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Context Creator / EdvardMunch

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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/915c35fe9c74e3912fdec654b27e3fe5.jpg]]
2[[caption-width-right:350:''Self Portrait in Hell'']]
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4Edvard Munch (12 December 1863 – 23 January 1944) was a Norwegian artist ({{painter|s}}, printmaker, sometime photographer) working in the 19th and 20th centuries. He broke with convention in a number of ways, in general turning his back on verisimilitude in his figurative art in favor of showing how things looked and felt to him. In this he would be a great influence on the Expressionist art before, during and after UsefulNotes/WorldWarI and modern art in general.
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6It is sometimes debated whether Munch was as angsty and troubled as he let on, or whether he was an expert self-dramatizer. Available evidence suggests that both things are true. In either case, since his best-known work is entitled "''Art/{{The Scream|Munch}}''" — and for good reason! — we can regard this as an essential component of both his personality and his work. Notably, many scholars have later speculated that, judging from various sources describing his behavior and personal problems, he was likely suffering from some degree of borderline personality disorder.
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8Munch was an extremely prolific and fully dedicated artist through his entire life, and is noteworthy for having preserved just about everything he made; when he bequeathed his own portfolio to the City of Oslo in his will, it numbered an incredible 27,000 individual pieces of art. Munch's portfolio entered the public domain at the start of 2015.
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11!! Munch's artworks:
12[[index]]
13* ''Art/TheScreamMunch''
14[[/index]]
15
16!! Edvard Munch provides examples of:
17* AgeAppropriateAngst: "Puberty" features a young, prepubescent girl sitting in the nude on her bed while a large shadow can be seen behind her on the wall. It expresses [[GrowingUpSucks her fear of growing from a girl into a woman]] and [[ParalyzingFearOfSexuality sexual angst]].
18* AmazingTechnicolorPopulation: This was one of Munch's innovations that influenced expressionism. Some of his figures had skin tones that were natural for Northern Europe. Others were green, blue, bright red: whatever it seemed like they should be.
19* {{Angst}}: Munch expressed this feeling in many of his works, some even simply titled "anxiety".
20* TheBigDamnKiss: His {{paintings}} entitled "Art/{{The Kiss|Munch}}" and a few others.
21* TheBlank: A lot of figures in his works, especially background ones, are missing some or all of their facial features. The androgynous central figure of "The Scream" has a face but no hair or ears.
22* CrapsackWorld: Munch suffered from neurosis, fear and a dominant religious zealot father. Many of his works are about negative emotions and events like death, sexual anxiety, sickness, depression, melancholy, separation, jealousy, sadness. Munch stated that this was a case of ItRunsInTheFamily. His relatives had a choice, he claimed, between dying from consumption at an early age, or going into gradual SanitySlippage.
23* CueTheSun: Munch was assigned to decorate the [[http://www.uio.no/om/kultur/kunst/aulaen/index.html grand hall of the Oslo University]] in 1913, and made his largest pictures for the walls. The most prominent one is ''the Sun'', probably just as archetypical as The Scream, the Madonna and the Vampire.
24* DeathOfAChild: In "Inheritance", which shows a woman clutching her dead or dying infant.
25* DoubleMeaningTitle: The painting "Vampire" shows a man with his head buried in a woman's torso under her cascading hair. The title could conceivably refer to either one of them.
26* FanDisservice: "Death of Marat I" shows a good looking naked man (Marat) and woman (UsefulNotes/CharlotteCorday), only he's lying dead in a bloody tub and she's giving us a creepy thousand yard stare.
27* FemmeFatale: Dark and dangerous women abound in his work.
28* TheHecateSisters: An interesting variety. One of his recurring motifs are the maiden, the mother and the whore.
29* NeverAcceptedInHisHometown: Munch went abroad pretty early after a ''really'' lousy reception in Christiania. He didn`t return for many years.
30* PoorCommunicationKills: Note that many of his painted characters avoid eye contact. The lack of communication is notable.
31* PopCulturalOsmosis: His only painting that has reached pop culture fame is "Art/{{The Scream|Munch}}", which has been parodied and referenced so often that it practically has become a StockParody in the form of TheScreamParody. The sad thing is that the general audience doesn't always know who painted it and isn't very familiar with Munch's other works.
32%% * RealLifeWritesThePlot: Munch's art was inspired by his personal depressions and trauma's, for instance the death of his older sister Sophie at age 15 from tuberculosis. %% Zero Context Example. Please provide context before uncommenting.
33* SanitySlippage: Many pictures deal with the possibility. A lot of critics dismissed him as a madman, and eventually - he had to be interred (1908).
34** To top this, the canvas of Art/{{The Scream|Munch}} has the following words written over the skyline: ''This could only have been painted by a loony''.
35* ShadowOfImpendingDoom: His paintings and drawings, often use shadows and rings of color, to emphasize an aura of fear and anxiety.
36* ShoutOut:
37** He painted portraits of two of his heroes: Creator/FriedrichNietzsche and playwright Creator/AugustStrindberg.
38** His painting "Starry Night" is a more subdued take on the subject, than that of Creator/VincentVanGogh's [[Art/TheStarryNight iconic one]], who was still largely an unknown.
39** His "Kiss" paintings revisit [[Art/TheKissHayez a theme and pose, by Italian painter Francesco Hayez]]. Creator/GustavKlimt's [[Art/TheKissKlimt version]] is more famous, but he actually came after Munch.
40* SkullForAHead: The figure on "The Scream" has a pale head that is very skull like.

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