

The late nineteenth century painting, popularly known as the Scream by Norwegian painter Edvard Munch remains to be one of the most famous art works recognized worldwide. Being a cultural icon representing the turmoil of modern times, the painting has a total of four versions painted by Munch between the year 1893 and 1910. As visual representation, the spectacular orange-colored sky and the ghostly screaming figure in Munch’s painting conveys a sense of modernist anxiety and the socio-cultural and political disillusionment of a period in transition in history.

Painted in 1893, Munch’s work, rich in color and contrasts, depicts a featureless figure standing on a bridge that seems to be screaming in agony holding its hands on its head. The background of the painting compliments the figure in disarray. The stormy sky, painted in bright yellow, orange, and red colors, depicts a similar kind of angst and turbulence experienced by the figure in the painting. A ‘high culture’ art work, Munch’s most famous painting has proven itself successful in influencing the popular imagination and culture of the society well into the twentieth century. Its effect on the collective consciousness and continued acceptance in the public space can be seen in the many popular adaptations of the painting including in the Scream film series. The painting has also inspired and influenced various inter-disciplinary works from poetry to philosophy, particularly the existential school of philosophy. The appeal of the painting to traverse and combine what is often distinguished as ‘high culture’ and ‘low culture’ speaks about its tremendous impact on individual consciousness and its ability to visually represent its larger socio-cultural meanings. 

The painting is often considered to be an autobiographical art work as a self-portrait of Munch himself. Such claims are substantiated by Munch’s own statements regarding the inspiration for the painting which he writes in his diary thus, “One evening I was walking along a path, the city was on one side and the fjord below. I felt tired and ill. I stopped and looked out over the fjord—the sun was setting, and the clouds turning blood red. I sensed a scream passing through nature; it seemed to me that I heard the scream. I painted this picture, painted the clouds as actual blood. The color shrieked. This became The Scream”. Regardless of its autobiographical content, what makes Munch’s painting popular and relevant is the universality of the emotions it represents. Employing techniques of expressionist art, the Scream is symbolic of a transition in time, both in social and art history. Munch’s painting is widely accepted as one of the propellers in expressionist movement which saw a radical change in earlier forms of art. 

The late nineteenth century was witness to some of the radical changes that altered its existing socio-political hierarchies and belief systems in society. The theories of Darwin, Marx, and Freud challenged many orthodox social views while also influencing and shaping western public consciousness. The industrial revolution, the waning hold of the institution of the church, the breakdown of earlier social structures, all gave rise to a sense of individual alienation and social disintegration. The morality, comfort, social coherence, and collective identity offered by the earlier social system were jeopardized by the consequences of industrialization. The ‘modern man’ born into this historical transition was recognized and represented by artists as a deeply conflicted individual whose existence was troublesome and detached from his or her surroundings. 

Expressionism, as an art movement, rejected the earlier modes of realism practiced in works of art and literature which the expressionist artists saw was incapable of representing the social reality of the modern world. The focuses now shifted from depicting external objects to visually representing the inner subjectivity of human consciousness. The art and literature of the emergent society had to transform it in order to make it more relevant. As a reaction against the loss of spirituality and social order, expressionism preoccupied itself with the anxieties of modern society. A movement against the limitations of realism, it expressed the social and psychological alienation of the individual by employing effective techniques that differed from earlier artistic forms including realism and naturalism. 

Munch’s art work represents the consciousness of the modern individual. As a visual text, it speaks directly to the people with whom it communicates the ideas it represents. Jean-Francois Lyotard distinguishes between discourse and figure associating discourse (the textual) with the hegemony of reason and the latter with the symbolic, the sublime which is formed fundamentally on sensual experience. He argues that images as visual representations are most effective in influencing individual consciousness as images make powerful psychological impact without the use of text. As subliminal and even irrational, images linger in the individual subconscious, shaping it and often determining how people see the world. It is through the visible that people come to understand their social reality and form opinions and beliefs. Presenting the unpresentable, the sublime through senses impacts the viewers emotionally and intellectually. Images act as symbols of any dominant idea pertaining in society or culture which is then presented to the viewer. Munch’s Scream depicts a featureless, sexless, and even lifeless figure screaming in agony. Its elongated hands and skeleton-like face give it a sense of unnaturalness and an unnerving vibe. It is presented primarily as a sensual experience dependent on the visual, where the viewer has psychological responses to phenomena which seem very physical. 

The emotional impact of the art on an individual is a sense of overwhelming pessimism and melancholia combined with a sense of powerlessness in a world that is beyond one’s control. The shadow figures in the painting that is seen to walk away from the screaming figure and the stormy unpleasant red sky depicts a sense of estrangement, both internal and external. The nature in the background, the sky, the river, and the bridge is shown to be a part of humankind and yet seem separated from the text of the painting. Nature does not exist in itself. It exists only as a tool to represent the subjectivity of a human. The coherence and unity between nature and mankind is breached as well as maintained. Humankind is not shown as an extension of nature. Instead, it is nature that becomes an extension of the human mind, symbolically depicting its existential angst. The depersonalization of the character in the painting stands for the loss of human integrity in modern world. The cultural impact of industrialization and its socio-political aftermath, which is depicted in the painting, creates a deeply crippled human condition. The sexless character represents Munch’s view of its emasculating social reality which is bordered on insanity, according to him. 

The central idea of the painting conveyed through the figure symbol is the notion of the creatureness of human condition combined with a nightmarish perception of the world. The notion of incompleteness, of being not human enough because of the dehumanizing aspect of modern civilization (that no longer holds any values) depicts a Kafkaesque sense of the world from where there is no escape. The entrapment the creature feels amidst this detached and cold society leads to a complete psychological breakdown, disillusionment, and even insanity. The sharp colors used in the painting give it the explicit emotional sensation it intends to invoke. The painting transcends the visual to the textual, that is, from its individual consumption/reception primarily based on the senses to a larger understanding/analysis of its underlining social implications. From the sensual experience, the viewer is able to identify the effects of modern reality that undermines humanity and creates the creatureness. 

As a visual text, the painting depicts a melancholic, pessimistic and apocalyptic fate of all human endeavors. Created during a transitional social period, the painting represents a unity of thought between human subjectivity and consciousness with art. As Munch who said “my sufferings are part of my self and my art. They are indistinguishable from me, and their destruction would destroy my art…I want to keep those sufferings”, the painting marked the beginning of an artistic movement that concerned itself with the individual against the forces of society and nature depicting their conflict through art. A precursor to the modernist movement, these while showing the moral pessimism and psychological angst of the modern individual wanted a resolution in the going back to the olden days. 