The Scream

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For other uses, see The Scream (disambiguation).

Scream (Skrik, 1893) is a seminal series of expressionist paintings by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch. It is said by some to symbolize the human species taken by an attack of existential angst, with the skyline inspired by the red twilights seen after the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa.^[1] The landscape in the background is Oslofjord, viewed from the hill of Ekeberg. The Norwegian word skrik is usually translated as "scream", but is cognate with the English shriek. Occasionally, the painting has been called The Cry.

There is a tempera on cardboard version (measuring 83.5 x 66 cm) in the Munch Museum, Oslo, Norway (see gallery), and an oil, tempera, and pastel on cardboard (measuring 91 x 73.5 cm) in the National Gallery of Norway (shown to right). A third version is also owned by the Munch Museum, and a fourth is owned by Norwegian billionaire Petter Olsen. Munch later also translated the picture into a lithograph (see gallery), so the image could be reproduced in reviews all over the world. Since 1994, two separate versions of Scream have been stolen by art thieves, but both were eventually recovered.

Contents 1 Sources of inspiration 2 Thefts 2.1 Recovery 3 Role in popular culture 4 References 5 Gallery 6 External links

[edit] Sources of inspiration

The original German title given to the work by Munch was Der Schrei der Natur (The Scream of Nature).

In a note in his diary Munch described his inspiration for the image thus:

“	I was walking along a path with two friends—the sun was setting—suddenly the sky turned blood red—I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence—there was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city—my friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety—and I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature.	„
—Edvard Munch

Sabrina Laurent (May 2005) deduced from Munch's description of his inspiration that the person in the foreground is the artist himself who "is not in fact screaming but simply reacting with horror to the scream of Nature. By placing his hands on his ears, Munch is desperately trying not to hear this scream that is putting him in some kind of panic attack." The position in which he portrays himself is a reflex reaction typical of anyone struggling to keep out distressing noise, whether actual or imagined.

The scene was identified as being the view from a road overlooking Oslo, the Oslofjord and Hovedøya, from the hill of Ekeberg. At the time of painting the work, Munch's manic depressive sister Laura Catherine was interned in the mental hospital at the foot of Ekeberg.

In 1978, the renowned Munch scholar Robert Rosenblum suggested that the strange, sexless creature in the foreground of the painting was probably inspired by a Peruvian mummy, which Munch could have seen at the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris. This mummy, which was crouching in a fetal position with its hands alongside its face, also struck the imagination of Munch's friend Paul Gauguin: it stood model for the central figure in his painting Human misery (Grape harvest at Arles) and for the old woman at the left in his painting Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?. More recently, an Italian anthropologist speculated that Munch might have seen a mummy in Florence's Museum of Natural History which bears an even more striking resemblance to the painting.^[2]

In 2003, astronomers claimed to have identified the time of the scene depicted in the painting. The volcanic eruption of Krakatoa in 1883 caused unusually intense sunsets throughout Europe in the winter of 1883-4, which Munch captured in his picture.^[3]

[edit] Thefts

On 12 February 1994 the National Gallery's Scream was stolen, the same day that the 1994 Winter Olympics opened in Lillehammer. The painting had been moved down to a ground floor display as part of the Olympic festivities, and the presence of international media made the theft a sensation. An early claim of responsibility by a Norwegian anti-abortion group turned out to be false. After three months, the painting was offered back to the Norwegian government for a ransom of USD $1 million. The ransom was refused, but the painting was nevertheless recovered on 7 May 1994, following a sting operation organised by the Norwegian police with assistance from the British Police and the Getty Museum.^[4]

On August 22, 2004, the Munch Museum's Scream was stolen at gunpoint, along with Munch's Madonna.^[5] Museum officials expressed hope that they would see the painting again, theorizing that perhaps the thieves would seek ransom money.^{[citation needed]} On April 8, 2005, Norwegian police arrested a suspect in connection with the theft.^[6] On April 28, 2005, it was rumored that the two paintings had been burned by the thieves to conceal evidence.^[7] On June 1, 2005, the City Government of Oslo offered a reward of 2 million Norwegian kroner (about USD $320,000) for information that could help locate the paintings. In early 2006, six men with previous criminal records were scheduled to go on trial, variously charged with either helping to plan or execute the robbery. Three of the men were convicted and sentenced to between four and eight years in prison in May of 2006. Two of the convicted art thieves, Bjørn Hoen and Petter Tharaldsen, were also ordered to pay 750 million kroner (US $122 million) to the City of Oslo, which is where the paintings were previously located.^[8] The Munch Museum itself was closed for 10 months for a $6 million security overhaul.

[edit] Recovery

On August 31, 2006, Norwegian police announced that the two paintings stolen in August 2004 had been recovered. The paintings were said to be in a better-than-expected condition with only a minor scratch and two minor holes. "We are 100 percent certain they are the originals," police chief Iver Stensrud told a news conference. "The damage was much less than feared."^[9]

On September 1, 2006, Munch Museum director Ingebjørg Ydstie said that the condition of the paintings was much better than expected and that the damage could be repaired.^[10] The circumstances of the recovery were not revealed.

On September 12, 2006, it was publicly announced that both of the recently recovered paintings would be put on public display before repairs were made; the temporary display opened on September 27. The Scream has water damage on the lower left corner, while Madonna suffered several tears on the right side of the painting, and has two holes in Madonna's arm. ^[11]

[edit] Role in popular culture

In the late twentieth century, Scream acquired iconic status in popular culture. In 1983–1984, pop artist Andy Warhol made a series of silk prints of works by Munch, including Scream. The idea was to desacralize the painting by making it into a mass-reproducible object, though Munch had already begun that process himself, by making a lithograph of the work for reproduction. Furthermore, characteristic of post-modern art is Erró's ironic and irreverent treatment of Munch's masterpiece in his acrylic paintings The Second Scream (1967) and Ding Dong (1979).^[12]

The work's reproduction on all kinds of items, from t-shirts to coffee mugs, bears witness to its iconic status as well as to its complete desacralization in the eyes of today's public. In that respect, it is comparable to other iconic works of art, such as Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. An American muralist, Robert Fishbone, discovered a gap in the market when in 1991 he started selling inflatable dolls of the central figure in the painting.^[13] His St. Louis-based company, On The Wall Productions, has sold hundreds of thousands of them. Critics have argued that by taking the figure out of its context (the landscape), Fishbone has destroyed the unity of Munch's work, thereby neutralizing its expressive force. Others have accused him of profiteering while displaying no artistic originality of his own.^{[citation needed]}

As one of very few works of modern art that are instantly recognizable to a broad audience, Scream has been used in advertising, in cartoons (including the film Looney Tunes: Back in Action), in anime (including two appearances in Excel Saga and one on Naruto), and on television. In an early episode of The Nanny, Grace received an inflatable "Scream" as a Christmas gift. The Scream is shown being painted by Dot Warner on the Animaniacs episode Hello Nice Warners. Scream was also depicted in an episode of the Fairly OddParents. Simpsons fans will remember a dialogue between Chief Wiggum and Lou in the hit TV show The Simpsons in the episode Sweets and Sour Marge, in which all sugar is banned from Springfield. While the police are burning the sweets, Lou holds up a chocolate sculpture and asks "Even this promotional Johnny Depp from the movie 'Chocolat'?" Wiggum replies: "We melted for him, now he's gonna do likewise." When the sculpture is thrown into the fire, it melts into The Scream and makes an audible squeal. In another episode (in a dream sequence) Homer challenges the Scream-figure in foosball. And in a Halloween special there appears a painting of the Scream, but where the Scream-figure is replaced by a screaming Lisa. Scream was also used on an episode of Rugrats, when Chuckie sees it and claims that it reminds him of himself when he had his head stuck in a sock. The hardcore punk band Dead Kennedys uses an altered version of the painting on a t-shirt.

In the children's film, Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck are being chased by Elmer Fudd, as they limbo through many famous paintings. The Scream is one of them, where Bugs and Daffy bump into the screamer, causing him to emit his famous scream. Bugs also stomps on Elmer's foot, causing him to scream in a similar way.

The work has likewise fascinated film and television. Ghostface, the psychotic murderer in Wes Craven's Scream horror movies, wears a Halloween mask inspired by the central figure in the painting. Reproductions of this mask are now very popular and common masks in the real world. Child actor Macaulay Culkin's pose in front of the mirror, in Home Alone by Chris Columbus appears to be an homage to the work. The work also serves as an item of conversation and an elaborately set-up, momentary sight-gag in the film The Pompatus of Love. It can also be seen in an episode of the BBC drama Jonathan Creek, where it is used as a backdrop to one of Adam Klaus' magic shows. It also appears in some video games, including the last level of the game Altered Beast, where one of the silhouettes in the foreground heavily resembles Scream. A likeness of the figure in the painting was used as the Ghost in the 1990s toy line, Monster in My Pocket. The painting also appears in a Beavis and Butt-Head episode, Butt is it Art ?.

It has also been used in political humor and advertisement. During the first Bush administration a popular poster showed the painting with the caption "President Quayle." In August 2006, Masterfoods USA, the maker of M&M's candies, began using Scream in ads for its dark chocolate variety of candies and offered a reward of two million of the candies for the painting's return. Shortly after the promotion was announced, the painting was recovered. Masterfoods has announced its intention to honor the reward once the recovered painting is authenticated.^[14]

The painting also appears in the Indian film, Don, where it is kept in a vault as part of a drug lord's collection. The film implied that he had stolen the famous painting, however, it was returned only weeks before the movie's release.

Jack Kirby painted a version of the Scream featuring the Discworld's most famous coward, Rincewind, for the paperback version of The Last Hero.

On December 12, 2006, Munch's birthday, a version of the painting was also shown to millions of Google searchers as part of a special logo.

[edit] References

[edit] Gallery

Munch translated Scream into lithograph in 1895.

This version, executed in tempera on cardboard, was stolen from the Munch Museum in 2004, and recovered in 2006.

[edit] External links

• One of the artist's many versions of the painting
• Edvard Munch - Scream
• Sabrina Laurent, An Eye on Art: Scream (Bohème, May 2005)
• Munch Museum, Oslo, Norway