The Scream
Edvard Munch
1893
Sometimes referred to, along with Vincent Van Gogh, as one of the founders of Expressionism, Munch's expressionism seems to be more inwardly focused than outwardly focused.  His scapes are more a drama of the mind, and internal struggles, though they may seem at first glance, or to the uninformed eye, as little more than just a vaguely disturbing picture.  'The Scream' took months in the development and was birthed from a journal entry of Munch's which read as follows:  "I walked along the road with two friends - then the sun went down suddenly the sky became bloody red ( -and I felt a breath of sadness - a sucking pain beneath the heart). I stopped, leaned against the railing tired to death - over the blue-black fjord and city lay blood and tongues of fire. My friends walked on and I was left trembling with fear - and I felt a big unending scream go through nature."

Quite possibly the biggest contributor to the disturbing ambience of the piece above is the distortion within perspective that is nearly impossible to detect at first glance, so subtly is it hinted at merely with shading.


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