Expressionism - Edvard Munch, Art or Therapy?

Expressionism - Edvard Munch, Art or Therapy?

"I was walking down the road with two friends when the sun set; suddenly, the sky turned as red as blood.

I stopped and leaned against the fence, feeling unspeakably tired. Tongues of fire and blood stretched over the bluish black fjord. My friends went on walking, while I lagged behind, shivering with fear. Then I heard the enormous infinite scream of nature."

Munch wrote these words in his diary in 1892, before he drew the most familiar image of his "The Scream".

At first, it might seem that Munch describes a relaxing evening. However, for Munch it was a moment of an existential crisis.

In the paint, Munch express his chaotic emotional state in that moment.

Munch's quote and painting reminded me of a therapy using drawing, that psychologists use with children. I guess that Munch's childhood influenced his way of thinking and painting.

Back to his childhood Edvard's mother died of tuberculosis in 1868, as did Munch's favorite sister Johanne Sophie in 1877.

About his father he wrote "My father was temperamentally nervous and obsessively religious—to the point of psychoneurosis. From him I inherited the seeds of madness. The angels of fear, sorrow, and death stood by my side since the day I was born."

I believe that Munch used art to express his inner thoughts, feelings and emotions. From his painting I see that he wasn’t an optimistic person, he reveals an honest, even ugly, glimpse of his inner troubles and feelings of anxiety through what he called his “soul painting,” putting more importance on personal meaning than on technical skill or “beauty,” a traditional goal of art.

According to the huge success of that painting, I can learn that to create a successful art I should listen to the inner self, without any restraints, even if it does not fit the conventional wisdom. As well as the Expressionist's did

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