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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 overwhelmed by an attack of existential angst.^[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 . Occasionally, the painting has been called The Cry.

A (66 x 83.5 cm) version of this piece appears 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.

Sources of inspiration

The original German title given to the work by Munch was Der Schrei der Natur In a note in his diary - the page headed Nice 22.01.1892, Munch described his inspiration for the image thus:

The reddish sky in the background was possibly inspired by the aftermath of the powerful volcanic eruption of Krakatoa in 1883.^[2] The ash that was ejected from the volcano left the sky tinted red in much of eastern United States and most of Europe and Asia from November, 1883 to February, 1884.

The person in the foreground may be the artist himself, not screaming but protecting himself or itself from the scream of Nature. Thus, the position in which he portrays himself could be considered a reflex reaction typical of anyone struggling to keep out distressing noise, whether actual or imagined. It is possible that intense waves of infrasound produced by Krakatoa's initial blast may have contributed to his overwhelming anxiety and panic, and are thus one of the ultimate sources of inspiration for the painting.

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.^[3]

Thefts

On February 12, 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.^[4] 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 recovered on May 7 1994, following a sting operation organized by the Norwegian police with assistance from the British Police and the Getty Museum ^[5].



On August 22, 2004, the Munch Museum's Scream was stolen at gunpoint, along with Munch's Madonna.^[6] Museum officials expressed hope that they would see the painting again, theorizing that perhaps the thieves would seek ransom money. On April 8, 2005, Norwegian police arrested a suspect in connection with the theft.^[7] On April 28, 2005, it was rumored that the two paintings had been burned by the thieves to conceal evidence.^[8] On June 1, 2005, the City Government of Oslo offered a reward of 2 million Norwegian krones (about 250,000 euro) 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.^[9] The Munch Museum itself was closed for 10 months for a $6 million security overhaul.

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."^[10]
• 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.^[11] The circumstances of the recovery were not revealed.
• On September 12, 2006, it was publicly announced that both of the 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. ^[12]
• On December 20, 2006, it was revealed the Scream was permanently damaged beyond repair. After months of examining the painting, experts at the Munch Museum have come to the conclusion that moisture damage meant that the painting could not be restored to its former condition. The Scream has damaged corners and flaking. Moisture damage that caused some discoloration presented the restorers with the greatest challenge and has meant that the painting could not be restored to perfection. The Madonna also requires extensive restoration work. The painting has a tear measuring about 27.5 mm in diameter, another tiny tear in the upper left corner and damage related to a broken canvas stretcher frame. ^[13]

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).^[14]



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 metal figures of the central figure in the painting.^[15] His St. Louis-based company, On The Wall Productions, has sold hundreds of thousands of them. 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, in anime, and 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. 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 digitalized version was used on the front cover of The UNIX-Haters Handbook to emphasize intense frustration. 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 ?. In the series finale of the Showtime show Dead Like Me, when a girl by the name of Josie Feldman is murdered by a serial killer on Halloween, he emerges out of Josie's house and blows out a candle in a Jack-o-Lantern with a painting of the painting's head on it instead of the traditional face.

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.^[16]

References

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.

External links

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

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