Edvard Munch: the most exciting artist of the 20th century in Milan

There is no artist as strong, impactful and capable of generating disturbance in the viewer as Edvard Munch. His extraordinary ability to tell the story of the 900th century and the social and intimate changes that characterized it is unmatched among his contemporaries. In his panorama, ancient certainties are crumbling, traditional points of reference are completely missing and, next to him, inside him, the bewilderment of the man and woman who no longer find refuge from that anguish that will be the intimate and at the same time social evil typical of the new era.

The relationship between the individual and the world is no longer the same: the harmony that regulated it has disappeared and man has never been more aware of it than now. So what is left for the artist if the search for truth outside himself, the objective truth, seems useless and moreover destined to generate a lie in the relationship between painter and spectator? What remains is the explosion of his subjectivity. The violent push outwards of his anguished inner feeling. Exclusively human and profoundly modern.

Munch's work is a perennial autobiography, devoted to continuous atonement and at the same time to the attempt to silence the monsters, the ghosts that inhabit him and that, perhaps, inhabit all of us.

But, despite an extraordinarily prolific production, the self-portrait is not the only expression of the Norwegian artist. Among his most famous paintings, like punches in the stomach, appear illness, mourning, loss and each time for the sensitive viewer, the anguish felt by the artist suddenly becomes our own. Born in 1863 in Norway, Munch was deeply influenced by the traumatic experiences he had since early childhood, such as the premature death of his mother and sister, which returns as a main theme in some of his most famous masterpieces.

The Edvard Munch exhibition in Milan

Forty years after the last exhibition dedicated to Edvard Munch, it is Royal Palace the place of Milan dedicated to hosting the works of the Norwegian master. The retrospective, organized in collaboration with the MUNCH in Oslo and the Municipality of Milan, opens today – September 14 – and closes on January 26, 2025, thus giving a long period of time – which includes the winter holidays and which closes on the eve of the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics – to enjoy an exhibition path that tells the tormented soul of Munch through 100 works of rare intensity, including masterpieces such as The death of Marat, The girls on the bridge e Starry Night.

The exhibition represents a tribute to the work of an author who is impossible to box, because he did not follow any current but was certainly a precursor of expressionist aesthetics, capable of transmitting personal anguish, which becomes universal, through the simplification of lines, closed and marked (or rather re-marked) contours and synthetic colours. An extraordinary example, or rather the example par excellence, of this ability is The Scream, here present in its lithographic version, exceptionally lent by the MUNCH Museum in Oslo, together with a selection of other masterpieces, among the most famous of the masters, such as Death in the Sick Room or the wonderful Between the bed and the clock, considered the masterpiece of his old age.

The exhibition itinerary

Edited by Patricia G. Berman, one of the major scholars of Munch, the exhibition is divided into thematic sections that allow visitors to immerse themselves in the artist's inner world. Among the works on display, stands out The death of Marat (1907), a powerful reflection on violence and death, while The girls on the bridge (1927) captures with poignant delicacy a moment of suspended stillness. Other iconic works such as malinconia (1900-1901) and Dance on the beach (1904) complete the rich panorama of his artistic production.

As mentioned, one of the most anticipated works is the famous lithograph of The Urlo (1895), which has managed to crystallize the restlessness of modern man, becoming one of the most recognizable images of world art. This masterpiece, thanks to the intense play of lines, transmits a silent cry that crosses time and space, touching universal chords.

The importance of the exhibition and related events

The arrival of the exhibition in Milan represents not only an expected return, but also an opportunity to rediscover the Norwegian artist in a new light. The Lombard city, thanks to Palazzo Reale, confirms itself as one of the most lively and open cultural centers for artistic experimentation at an international level. The exhibition is enriched by a busy calendar of events and collateral activities that will involve various Milanese cultural realities, offering the public the opportunity to delve deeper into the complex figure of Munch and the themes addressed in his works.