From 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM on September 17th, 2014, the second scene of the theme lecture and new book launch of Munch and Photography was held at the CAFA Art Museum. Stein Olav Henrichsen, the director of the Munch Museum of Norway, opened the speech. He talked about the overall situation of the Munch Museum from Munch’s artistic creation and introduced the book Munch and Photography and the relationship between photography and munch art. Then he spoke with Wang Huangsheng, the director of the CAFA Art Museum, on the protection, research and exhibition planning of the museum’s collection. The CAFA, especially the faculty and students from the Department of Arts Management of the School of Humanities, the staffs of CAFA Art Museum, and the audience from all walks of life participated in this activity.
Henrichsen first introduced Munch, the precursor of an expressionist artist and his artistic creations. Edvard Munch, one of Norway’s most famous artists, was born in 1863 and died in 1944. His father was a military doctor, and Munch and his family often moved around when he was young. At that time, Norway was very poor, and Munch’s childhood was very hard. He lost his mother when he was five, and his sister died when he was fourteen. Munch had been plagued by illness for most of his life and had not received a regular education. In Munch’s work, we can feel the enormous impact of his childhood on him. Munch started painting since childhood and showed his talent. At that time, the painting was still in the stage of naturalism and realism. However, Munch’s work showed the life problems of death and disease that everybody would suffer. He created a unique aesthetic concept but was denied by critics at the time, even in Germany and France.
In 1893, Munch’s first solo exhibition was attacked strongly by German critics, but he rose to prominence in Europe. Munch was very persistent and always insisted on his choice of the aesthetic road with no compromise. Hence, he also made a lot of enemies in Norway, Germany and France.
Henrichsen pointed out that the character of Munch’s art was that he draw what he saw instead of the thing itself. Munch was expressing the world in his heart and emotion. That is why some of Munch’s works are unfinished. The paintings reflect his memories. Some of the works are rough and scratchy. He even took the pictures outside and left them unattended in the rain. However, Munch’s creation caused a stir as the unfinished works did not meet the people’s aesthetic requirements at that time. During his sixty years of artistic creation, he constantly tried new tools and expressions, continually changing the medium and exploring the complementary relationship between photography and painting.
People often ask, why Munch is so famous today? Mr. Henrichsen stated two big reasons. The first one is the artistic contribution. Munch’s paintings are bright in color and prominent in figures, which can easily touch the audience. The second is that Munch is the pioneer of expressionism, and his works reflect the general emotional state. People can feel the challenges of life in his paintings, and see that Munch’s works are related to himself. Many people will know more about themselves after reading munch’s work. On the one hand, Munch’s work shows the dark side of human nature, such as death, melancholy, and jealousy. However, on the other hand, there is a bright side to Munch’s work, which includes love, nature, and animals.
Director Henrichsen then introduced the Munch Museum. Last year, the Munch Museum held 20 exhibitions on Munch’s works. A version of Munch’s “Scream” was once stolen and sold for $120 million at auction. While when the artist was alive, the work was not easy to sell. In 1944, Munch died and donated all of his artworks to the Oslo City, which later became the museum’s collections. The museum holds a collection of about 28,000 works, including paintings, prints and many of Munch’s personal belongings as well.
When it comes to the protection and restoration of Munch’s work, Henrichsen pointed out that his work was extremely vulnerable. Some of the paintings on cardboard have become very fragile over the years, and each exhibition requires special personnel to escort, install and withdraw the works. The Munch Museum has set up a special project in the collection department to study how to conserve the works better. Each year, an international seminar is held to discuss conservation issues. In terms of research, the Munch Museum has 17 art historians and works with other museums to conduct a variety of exhibitions about Munch each year.
Another topic that Mr. Henrichsen mentioned is the digitalization of Munch’s works. Munch had never stopped writing in his life. His writings include poetry, plays, and correspondence with other artists and philosophers. The digitalization of these document materials has already been completed. At present, the digital project of Munch Museum is centered around the painting. The digitalized data of pictures will be finished next year and the processing of the prints followed in the year after next. Digitalized works can be easily accessed online. Besides, the Munch Museum plans to publish more Munch catalogs and other related books worldwide.
Henrichsen also introduced the Munch Museum of the future.The current museum building was built in 1963 and has a history of more than 50 years. The new museum will be completed within four years, four times the size of the old one. Munch’s works will be better preserved in the new museum. At that time, apart from Munch’s works, the Munch Museum will also exhibit works by other artists, hold concerts and international conferences, together with the running of restaurant, bookstore, and cafe. Standing at the top of the new building, you can get an overview of the Oslo city. The research equipment will also be greatly improved, and Henrichsen made a point of welcoming scholars from China.
For celebrating the 150th anniversary of Munch’s birth, the museum has successfully held 280 art projects and has worked extensively with institutions, galleries, private enterprises, and tourism. In London, Oslo, Tokyo, Washington and many other parts of the world, the Munch Museum has organized seminars to promote related research. As part of the observance, there are 20 publications released around the world, including Munch and photography. The author is Arne Eggum, an art historian at the Munch museum. Henrichsen thought this book was one of the best books about Munch. People can read from different angles, both as Munch’s autobiography because the book had written from the one year to 80 years old of Munch; and as a history book about the beginning of photography.
Munch was born in 1863. When he was about thirteen or fourteen years old, he started to use photography as a tool for painting. At the beginning of the birth of photography, there was a widespread concern: since photography was born, do we still need art? Paintings used to depict figures and landscapes, but with photography, these can be easily captured. Art is not just about recording, and it also includes other rich connotations. It was just what Munch’ eyes saw, not what things looked like.
From the book Munch and photography, it can be seen that the influence of photography on art lies not only in technology but also in aesthetic expression. In many ways, photography influenced Munch’s artistic creation, for example, he used the painting to imitate the effect of secondary exposure. Besides, photography affected Munch’s view of the world. He conducted many experiments with other artists to explore the possibilities of aesthetics through photography and then communicated with photography itself. Munch also took selfies regularly, though this was not common at the time. He can view himself from different angles by taking a selfie. Photography is gradually changing from one tool to the art itself, and Munch constantly experimented with different themes to present various situations in life.
In the dialogue section between director Henrichsen of the Munch Museum, and director Wang Huangsheng of the CAFA Art Museum, Mr. Wang carried the talk from a curatorial perspective and learned about the important exhibitions of the 20 exhibitions held by the Munch Museum to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Munch’s birth. While Henrichsen gave an illustration of two exhibitions, “the Munch Exhibition” and “Munch/ Warhol and the Multiple images”.
“The Munch Exhibition” is the largest exhibition of Munch memorabilia in collaboration with the Norwegian National Museum in Oslo, with more than 300 of Munch’s most important oil paintings on display. Talking about the curatorial angle of “Munch/Warhol and Multiple Image”, Henrichsen pointed out that Andy Warhol bought four of the Munch’s works in the 70s: “Scream”, “Madonna”, “Munch’s Self-portrait”, and “the Brooch”. “The Brooch” is a portrait of a woman wearing a beautiful brooch. She was Munch’s lover. Andy Warhol created a series of works based on the four works, which were showcased in the exhibition of“Munch/Warhol and Multiple Image” in New York together with the four works of Munch. This exhibition also toured Turkey for three months.
Director Wang Huangsheng appreciated the unique way of exhibiting“Munch/Warhol and Multiple Image”. He had a further discussion about the topic of curating an exhibition through the collection, and he pointed out that he had seen the exhibition of“The Real Van Gogh: The Artist and His Letters” in London. The exhibition explored the history of Van Gogh’s works and relationships through Van Gogh’s correspondence. Since Munch’s solo exhibition had been exhibited in 1983 and the 1990s in China, Mr. Wang Huangsheng asked the question that if the Munch Museum plans to hold a new exhibition in China in the future, what kind of perspective will it take. Mr. Henrichsen expressed interest in bringing Munch’s exhibition to China because he felt that the Chinese people have a keen interest in Munch’s work. Not only has the museums in Oslo received a lot of Chinese visitors, but the Munch Museum’s website also has many Chinese visitors.
From the topic of using the collection resources to plan the exhibition, Henrichsen further discussed the planning point of the exhibition of Andy Warhol and Munch. He pointed out that “Munch/Warhol and Multiple Image” is to explore why Andy Warhol bought four pieces of Munch and how did he read these works, thus to the relationship between Munch and Warhol’s art. In addition, there are other possibilities for exhibitions designing, such as from a repetitive perspective. Munch repeated his paintings in different ways throughout his career and Warhol also had a lot of recurring themes. In repeatability, the two artists have something in common. Besides, from the perspective of pop art, Warhol is the representative of pop art, while Munch’s “The Scream” played an essential role in the creation of many pop artists. From this point of view, Munch’s works can easily resonate with Warhol’s works. By comparing different artists helps to understand them better, the Munch Museum is currently planning a series of exhibitions bringing Munch and Van Gogh together, and will also plan joint exhibitions of Munch with other artists.
Mr. Wang pointed out that the exhibition planning and research work ware very interesting. The study of the different versions of Munch’s famous “The Scream” is drawn from the repetitive creation of Munch. Mr. Henrichsen stated that the painting of “The Scream” went through a long creation process. The original inspiration of creation came from one of Munch’s personal experiences. One day, he went for a walk with his friends in Oslo and passed a bridge. Munch saw the blood-red sky over the bridge and felt that the sky and nature were screaming at him. He left his friends and stood alone on the bridge. The significance of “The Scream” in the contemporary era is that Munch explores the relationship between man and nature. Many people feel that “the Screaming” refers to the Shouting of the character in the picture, which is a kind of misreading. Actually, it is Nature that is screaming at him, and the character is just making a defensive move.
The first version of “The Scream” is a sketch. The character in the painting was not the images we see later. In the first version, the character was looking at the sky, not the audience. Later, Munch decided to add color to the painting to enhance the movement and the flow of energy, trying to show the influence of the natural state on humans. Therefore, he used a less realistic way to express and reflect the mental state of the character. Now,“The Scream” has become a representative of anxiety and nervousness. It is so popular that it even appears on the mobile phone case used by the Chinese. In addition to the sketch, there are four large version of “The Scream” paintings as well as prints.
Director Wang Huangsheng stated that the work of “The Scream” had the feeling of multiple exposure and dynamic vision, and Director Henrichsen agreed with that. The topic returned to Munch and Photography. Photography appeared in 1839 and Munch was born in 1863. Wang Huangsheng said that the appearance of photography brought great shock to the art creation at that time. Munch was an expressionist artist. Then, how to present and understand the relationship between Munch’s photography and painting media, such as how to use photography to observe the world, and how to use photography in the picture.
According to the director Henrichsen, the relationship between photography and art can be viewed from different perspectives. Photography enabled things to be seen from different angles, but these observations were not possible before the appearance of photography. Munch indeed applied the new visual image and visual effects brought by photography into the paintings. In the final question link, the director Henrichsen further pointed out the change in the relationship between photography and painting. In the early stages of photography, photography and painting can be regarded as a kind of competitive relationship. Gradually, however, photography has gone from mere recording natural reality to expressing mental activity and deeper content of human existence.
As for the Van Gogh and Munch exhibition that was in preparation right now, with which the audience is concerned, Henrichsen said that two art historians from the Munch Museum and two art historians from the Van Gogh Museum had been working on it for the past four years. Van Gogh and Munch may have had met before because they all stayed in Paris at the time and in the same social circle. However, no specific evidence has been found. Also, there are many other aspects to explore the relationship between the two artists. First of all, their styles are very vivid. But there is a big difference. Van Gogh was not known during his lifetime, while Munch was famous in his early stage. Both artists were very persistent in their artistic styles. They had a strong personality and similar themes in painting, creating many self-portraits, and they were both trying to express psychological problems. Besides, there are also many similarities in technology and aesthetics. The Munch and Van Gogh exhibition will be held in Oslo and Amsterdam respectively in May and September next year. In the exhibition catalog, exploration of the similarities and differences between the two artists by eight art historians will be included. The exhibition will be a significant event in the history of the Munch Museum.
As for the questions raised by the audience about the identity of the artist and the art manager, the director Henrichsen suggested that he was both a musician and a director of the museum. Both Mr. Wang and Mr. Henrichsen are artists and directors. As an artist, you need to express yourself, show yourself, and be good at communicating with your surroundings. The work of art managers is more at the strategic level. Becoming an art manager and becoming a director of an art museum must be highly strategic. What they think about is not only to express themselves but also how to promote artists, how to help more people and let the public accept art, enjoy art and involve in the process of creating art.
As for the question about the new museum construction and the restart of the project after it has been terminated. Director Henrichsen recalled that early in 2009, the Oslo government decided to build the new Munch Museum. An architect’s design competition was held, and about 60 construction firms around the world took part in the competition. After the selection by the international jury, a Spanish designer won the competition. However, in 2011, due to a division of opinion on the location of the new museum, the city government suspended the project. Eighteen months later, through the tireless efforts of the museum and various negotiations, the site was finally confirmed in 2013. The entire construction project was restarted and is expected to be completed in 2019. It will be a better place to preserve and showcase Munch’s art, contemporary art, and make more extensive international cooperation.
The whole activity ended in a good interaction, and the director Wang Huangsheng thanked the director Henrichsen for his introduction to Munch art, the Munch Museum, and the relationship between the art and photography of Munch. He pointed out that director Henrichsen had an in-depth study on Munch’s painting, showed a deep understanding of museum management and execution, and raised a new method of exhibition planning to advance the development of the Munch Museum from the view of cultural policy.Mr. Wang also expressed his gratitude to the organizers: Lens magazine, the Norwegian embassy in China, the Norwegian consulate general in Shanghai and the Munch Museum of Norway. It hoped that the artists, practitioners of the art management and the staffs in museums would get a lot of inspiration and help from this activity.
