Staatsgalerie presents Edvard Munch in Stuttgart an exhibition on view July 5 – October 6 2013.
The Staatsgalerie will honour the 150th birthday of Edvard Munch (1863–1944) by presenting its precious holdings of works by the Norwegian painter and graphic artist in their entirety for the first time in more than fifty years.
Numbering approximately sixty works– including twenty-five privately owned examples which are on permanent loan to the museum – the exhibition will provide insights into the formal approach and thematic diversity typical of Edvard Munch.
The close link between his biography and his oeuvre, between what he experienced and how he processed it inwardly – his life with and virtually “in” art – make Munch one of the very most fascinating figures in art.
Recently discovered letters provide evidence that Munch visited the Stuttgart museum as early as August 1923, and also continued to cultivate his contact to then Staatsgalerie’s director Otto Fischer after that date. These sources thus also bear further testimony to the interest of the museum’s early directors in the art of their own times. It is the continuation of their collecting activities through the ongoing acquisition of modern art by their successors that we now have to thank for holdings which are unique in quality.
The exhibition is a shining example of this fortunate state of affairs: The Staatsgalerie is in the fortunate position of owning the only existing proof of the print which gained fame as “The Scream” (“Der Schrei”) on violet-coloured paper. Our proof, however, shows that the artist himself entitled the work “Geschrei”, a collective noun which could be translated as “Screaming”. www.staatsgalerie.de