Austin Dye

Prof.

Art Appreciation

8 April 2020

Critique Essay

The painting The Scream was created by Edvard Munch in 1893. His painting was on

cardboard and he used tempera and casein for the medium. The dimensions of the artwork are

36" x 29". Munch is a Norwegian Expressionist artist who is a part of the modernist movement.

The modernist movement was most known for cultural trends and changes. The modernist

movement had many different characteristics some being self-awareness and dealing with irony

in social settings. Munch’s most famous painting is The Scream, this was a reflection of his

emotions and expressed his anxiety in this painting. In his childhood he had dealt with mental

illness throughout his family and the worry of his inheritance. He had grown up in Norway and

created the painting The Scream with his goal to study the soul, that is to say, the study of my

own self. He had painted self-searching pieces until he died in 1944. In 1963, a museum opened

in Oslo in memory of him; his work displayed throughout Munch Museum. He has 1,100

paintings, 4,500 drawings, and 18,000 prints in the museum on display.

The Scream is a very well known painting and has lots of details and symbolism in the

artwork. The first thing I noticed when examining the painting was the choice of color and how

bright the sky is. The sunset in the sky as it flows across the painting is very soothing to look at.
The next thing I noticed in the painting is the person standing on the bridge screaming with

hands-on their face almost as if it were a cry for help. The author states, “Its androgynous, skull-

shaped head, elongated hands, wide eyes, flaring nostrils, and ovoid mouth have been engrained

in our collective cultural consciousness”( Munch, The Scream 1). This is an important part of the

painting; it has all the symbolism in it. The human figure screaming is a representation of his

emotions and shows how he feels. The figure screaming also keeps you thinking about why it

was screaming and to question what it all means. The foreground and background blend together

in this painting. The blue river floats into the bright orange, red, and yellow-toned sky as it

blends. In the painting, the bridge goes across the page in a steep diagonal taking up a portion of

the page.

There are many different visual elements and principles of the design shown in his work

The Scream. The author of The Scream article says “Munch manipulates such elements as line,

color, light, and shadow, form, and balance to create the effects of horror, anxiety, distress, and

endless other unpleasant emotions that the audience may experience while interpreting this

painting.” (The Scream 1). The element that stands out to me is the use of lines, he uses a variety

of lines in order to keep it cohesive. This allows for lines to be thin, thick, curvy, and straight. In

his painting he has a focus on the bridge which is one of the only parts with a straight line. The

lines of the bridge begin in the front right and go across the page to the left middle part of the

page. Towards the back of the bridge are two people who are very faint. These people appear to

be dissolving in the background. This is a significant part of the painting; it shows how the figure

feels by being left and alone. Another visual element used in his work is light and shadow. He

uses this to highlight areas of the paper. For example, to make the water look reflective he added
white to brighten the water. To add shadows, he added black and darker shades of blue to the

water to make it additional depth. The principles of design he used are balance and emphasis. For

the balance, he added people in the background to balance the figure in the front. Another

principle of design he used was emphasis. He did this by making the figure in dark colors for the

figure to stand out.

The meaning of The Scream is not something everyone will understand without

background information about Munch. The author of the article Meaning of the Scream says

“Munch describes feelings of exhaustion while overwhelmed by an almost violent wave of

anxiety” (Meaning of the Scream 4). This piece is a soul painting which is also known for

expressing emotions. Since he had dealt with anxiety his painting reflects how he felt. Most

people would think walking on a bridge over the water while the sunsets would be relaxing but

he finds it the complete opposite.

To conclude I think the painting The Scream is an unforgettable piece and that was one of

his goals when creating it. The shape of the face is not like anything I have seen before it has a

terrifying look and makes you wonder what is going on. My favorite detail he included is in the

painting is the curvy lines incorporated throughout the artwork. The lines in the sky give a windy

free look as it smoothly floats across the page. Curvy lines are also included in the water as it

streams across the page and melts with the sky.

“Meaning of The Scream (1893) Painting by Edvard Munch: Art Analysis.” LEGOMENON,

legomenon.com/meaning-of-the-scream-1893-painting-by-edvard-munch.html.

“Munch, The Scream (Article).” Khan Academy, Khan Academy,

www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/later-europe-and-americas/modernity-a

p/a/munch-the-scream.

“The Scream.” Media and Visual Literacy Project, 8 Nov. 2011,

screamforcoke.wordpress.com/scream/.