Andy Warhol

Acquired directly from the artist by the previous owner

At first glance, Edvard Munch would seem an unlikely inspiration for Andy Warhol. Born into poverty, Munch lost his mother to tuberculosis at the age of 5.  Subsequent up-rearing by a religiously fanatical and periodically violent father left him emotionally vulnerable. Later, despite commercial success, the artist battled severe depression by drowning himself in alcohol and nicotine and eventually entering a sanatorium in Copenhagen to treat his ‘nerve crisis.’ Ultimately, Munch died isolated and alone, bequeathing his entire estate to the municipality of Oslo.  

However, despite their obvious biographical differences, Munch’s oeuvre was shaped by many of the same philosophical preoccupations which would later underpin Warhol.  Munch, like Warhol, was obsessed with visualizations of sex, sexuality and death, frequently drawing on these motivations for source material. Similarly, both artists wholly engaged in the indulgence of self-portraiture with Munch completing over 70 such works on canvas and Warhol at least as many. Munch was also fascinated with photography, experimenting with the effects of light, blurring and the double-exposure. Lastly, much like his Pop successor, Munch advocated image repetition; a concept he propagated through the duplication of successful compositions and the media of print-making. Thus, Warhol’s appropriation of the Norwegian master becomes less a random adoption of an art historical icon and more an affirmation of artistic kinship. 

Warhol began reflecting on art history as early as 1963 by reproducing its most ubiquitous image, Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, in a series of 7 paintings.  However, it was not until the late 1970’s, that Warhol earnestly embarked on a cycle of Art from Art works, utilizing images by artists from the art historical canon, including Uccello, Botticelli, Picasso and Matisse. Of these, the works inspired by Edvard Munch capture Warhol at his most self-referential.  By appropriating images from an artist so philosophically akin, Warhol cannily reflects on himself, and the concept of artistic originality.

Of the four works Warhol appropriated from Munch, including Eva Mudocci, Self-Portrait with Skeleton Arm, and Madonna, The Scream stands out as the most eminently recognizable image of art historical importance.  Often considered the most profound representation of man’s existential angst, Munch executed no less than four painted versions of this composition. Warhol, however, did not base his interpretation on one of these paintings, but rather a lithograph completed by the Norwegian artist in 1895. By using a printed, rather than a painted, image of The Scream as a source, Warhol acknowledged an ideological camaraderie with Munch regarding image repetition.  

Though Warhol executed only 5 canvases appropriating The Scream, these works hold an integral place in the artist’s oeuvre philosophically as well as technically.  In the present piece, we can see the artist’s mastery of the silkscreen technique and colour placement.  The deep red of the bridge coupled, with the pink central figure and loud purple sky contrast with the rationality of the green embankment and blue water, thus presenting a figure with one foot in reason and one in madness. Though the fantastic colours prevent us from emotionally empathizing with 19^th century emotional torment, we are presented with a more modern interpretation of the human condition.  Here, we are cast a glimpse of Warhol’s perception of the world, filled with synthetic colour, psychedelic revelry, but ultimately lonely.  As such, The Scream can be interpreted as an attempt by Warhol to bind himself to something real.  By appropriating the anguished Munch’s most profound image, Warhol tethers himself more firmly to the world around him, and the art historical canon.