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Edvard Munch: painter of The Scream, pioneer of the selfie?

You’re probably familiar with the iconic work of this Norwegian artist thanks to his 1893 painting, The Scream (or Skrik in Norwegian). But did you know that Edvard Munch (Chronogram answer #493) was also an early adopter of the self portrait? Munch was among the first artists and photographers to turn the camera around and experiment with himself as the subject. Others include Hippolyte Bayard and Robert Cornelius in the mid 1800s, around the invention of the daguerrotype.

Many of Munch’s photographs were experimental, playing with double exposure, motion, and distorted perspectives to transform everyday images into something less recognizable. Munch viewed the camera as an expressive medium, using things that we might consider to be photography ‘mistakes’ to create a visual poetry. Sometimes he posed in the nude. He also captured portraits of friends and family to chronicle his lived experience. 

In addition to pioneering the selfie, Munch may have predicted the invention of the cellphone, writing in a letter to a friend in 1910, “If I had been in possession of the not yet invented little remote telephonic device that one keeps in one’s pocket, you would have received my message a long time ago”. Today, that ‘not-yet-invented’ device is now home to an emoji based on his world-famous screaming face 😱.

Speaking of The Scream, it may surprise you to learn that the main figure in the painting is not the screamer himself. Rather, the title of the painting (which means ‘shriek’ in the original Norwegian) refers to a scream that Munch claimed was coming from the person’s surroundings. Under the painting, he wrote “'I felt a large scream pass through nature”. The figure seemingly blocks out the scream as they look at the viewer with fear. If you are brave and would like to look upon The Scream yourself, you will need to take a field trip to the National Museum in Oslo, Norway. There, you can also view some of Munch’s painted self portraits. Bonus points if you make it through without screaming.

Answers to last week's games

Monday, August 5 to Sunday, August 11.

Linxicon

The following are the shortest paths from last week:

• #175 restore -> repair -> diagnosis -> indication -> gesture

• #176 sweet -> fine -> accept -> reject

• #177 medication -> medicate -> regenerate -> generate

• #178 calculate -> calculated -> finished -> complete -> wonderful

• #179 address -> place -> gym -> workout -> strengthen

• #180 switch -> change -> leadership -> authority

• #181 veteran -> trainee -> qualification -> criteria

• #182 Play now!

Forgeous

Play Forgeous for Aug 12.