The Scream
Edvard Munch’s, The Scream has been referred to, not so much an incident or a landscape, but as a depiction of a state of mind. Fortunately, many versions of The Scream survived through time since painted, sketched and lithographed from 1893 to 1910. It wasn’t just the image that inspired my latest submission but the artist’s diary entry dated, 22 January 1892, a translation of which read:
“I was walking along the road with two friends. The sun was setting.
I felt a breath of melancholy –
Suddenly the sky turned blood-red. I stopped, and leaned against the railing, deathly tired -
looking out across the flaming clouds that hung like blood and a sword over the blue-black fjord and town.
My friends walked on - I stood there, trembling with fear - And I sensed a great, infinite scream pass through nature.”
My version of the Scream was made from papier mache and found objects that included woolen gloves, plastic teeth and a very old jumper that someone once gave me - someone from my distant past who was once in part, responsible for many of my screams.
(This post relates to The Scream, Arrigo Dorissa art doll #14, June 2008)
Hello Arrigo. I’m online and notification of your latest post has just come through. Congratulations. I’m a big fan of Munch’s, The Scream and have a large print of it in my office.The original German title given to the work by Munch was Der Schrei der Natur (The Cry of Nature). The Norwegian word skrik is usually translated as scream. Occasionally, the painting has been called The Cry. In the painting, the person in the foreground may be the artist himself, not screaming but protecting himself from the scream of Nature. Therefore, the position in which he portrays himself could be considered as a reaction typical of anyone struggling to keep out distressing sensations, whether actual or imagined. Please keep your creativity flowing and resulting in the wonderful sculptures that you’re creating. Douglas.