Edward Munch (Norwegian, 1863-1944) : Madonna (1895-1902)

Résumé du document

Madonna is one of Munch's most popular images. It is a mix between a controversial image linked to a controversial artist, and a transcendent representation of women through different aspects. These are reflected in the different titles that had the painting: Madonna, Conception, Loving Woman, Monna and Annunziata. The first exhibition of Munch's paintings in Berlin in 1892 triggered a scandal. He had been invited by a group of painters called the Berlin's artists union. It was the first time that he exhibited his works abroad. Deeply disturbed and shocked by the Munch's paintings, a majority of German artists who were extremely conservative in terms of style decided to close the exhibition in spite of the protest.

Extraits

[...] Edvard Munch Madonna is one of Munch's most popular images. It is a mix between a controversial image linked to a controversial artist, and a transcendent representation of women through different aspects. These are reflected in the different titles that had the painting: Madonna, Conception, Loving Woman, Monna and Annunziata. The first exhibition of Munch's paintings in Berlin in 1892 triggered a real scandal. He had been invited by a circle of painters called the Berlin's artists union. It was the first time that he exhibited his works abroad. [...]

[...] As we will see, Munch followed the same kind of thought process, and was interested as well by feminine characters. All these elements are present in the lithograph than we will study Madonna. The painting is part and parcel of a series of works which Munch and others refers to the “Frieze of Life” that created, when they put together a picture of life. Themes such as death, love, anxiety, sexuality, birth and religion are evoked in this painting. The place of the women in the work of Munch is really important. [...]

[...] To conclude, the lithograph Madonna is highly symbolic of the work made by Munch during his career. It reflects his own life (the relations with his mother), and his psychic troubles (his fear and suspicion towards women), but he embodied at the same time a very broad movement, found in music as well as in painting, that is Expressionism. Despite his very personal style, numerous painters and artists gave their own interpretation of Munch's themes, especially women as femmes fatales. [...]

[...] The book by Berman and Van Nimen (Munch and Women, Image and Myth, Art Services International, 1997) gives a more balanced analyse of the woman representations by Munch. They explain instead of given a depreciative image of the female sex, Munch knew to stress the different cultural roles of women. For example, his painting Puberty (1894) depicts a young girl who is becoming aware of his sexual pulses and drives. Consequently, he painted women in different stages of their lives as multidimensional characters. [...]

[...] The effect is stressed by the mix of dark blue and black colors around her. There is a kind of ambiguity in this painting in so far as the features of the Madonna seem to be peaceful and harmonious, even if all her face and her body are made by little thin dark lines closely put together, to create shadows that can remind us to scratches. So, suggesting that Madonna is injured, Munch introduces violence and death feeling in this work. [...]