Documentary
2024 Norway
8 minutes
Language: English
Produced by MUNCH in collaboration with Spindel Film. ©Munchmuseet
The film is shown and shared with permission from the Munch Museum
Edvard Munch was one of Modernism’s most significant artists. His tenacious experimentation within painting, graphic art, drawing, sculpture, photo and film has given him a unique position in art history.
Edvard Munch’s The Scream (1893) has become a universal symbol of existential anxiety and panic attacks. The painting has its origins in an experience that Munch himself described, when he was suddenly overcome by an overwhelming sense of anxiety while out for a walk. Such experiences followed him throughout much of his life and left a deep mark on his art. In The Scream, Munch does not depict the world as it appears, but as it can be experienced when anxiety takes hold. That is precisely why the painting continues to move people more than 130 years later.