Visual & Decorative Arts Blog

The Scream is Edvard Munch's most famous work of art. It is easily recognisable and eternally haunting. The figure at the centre opens its mouth in an almost audible scream of agony while colours swirl in the background. But what influenced Munch to create this masterpiece? With the upcoming release of our new book Edvard Munch: Masterpieces of Art, we take a look at Munch's life and the influences that led to the Scream.

Last Wednesday saw the return of the popular ‘Museum Selfie’ day, a Twitter project initiated last year by the group of Museum professionals behind the website CultureThemes. The hashtag ran rife, with people posing in front of famous paintings, re-sharing the altered Vermeer image, and making museum exhibits look desperate to take a picture of themselves. The craze of the selfie in recent years – ‘selfie’ was named Oxford Dictionary’s 2013 Word of the Year – highlights what could be described as an addiction to self-portraiture, and the enthusiasm for the ‘museum selfie’ in particular indicates a fundamental need or desire to acknowledge that self: for the photographer to become a part of the photo and exist within its created art. With the upcoming release of Flame Tree’s ‘Edvard Munch: Masterpieces of Art’, we thought we’d have a look at how Munch’s tormented and emotionally vibrant paintings depict the self, and how his emotions and experiences flavour as well as constitute the subject matter of his work