At the last weekend of its opening, I had the chance to visit the very recommendable Munch : Van Gogh exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam which closed on January 17 (Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.fr, Amazon.de). The great show with some 120 artworks, including some 80 paintings, is over, but the excellent catalogue remains available.
According to the research of the exhibition organizers, Munch and Van Gogh never met despite parallels in life and art. For instance, in May 1890, they both stayed in Paris and most likely visited the same exhibition. They both started with naturalistic works, were influenced by the Impressionists, Toulouse-Lautrec and Gauguin, and found their own, uncompromising, innovative artistic expression.
The catalogue and the Munch : Van Gogh exhibition, first shown in Oslo, then in Amsterdam, explored the parallels as well as the differences between the two artists. Amazingly, despite the striking similarities in their work, life and influence, Munch and Van Gogh had not been shown together since the 1912 Sonderbund exhibition in Cologne, which inspired the Expressionists.
In addition to their own works, paintings by artists who inspired the two were shown in Oslo and Amsterdam. Most notable among them were Manet, Monet, Pissarro, Toulouse-Lautrec and Gauguin. However, both Munch and Van Gogh did not end up as epigones, but transformed what they saw to create their own, original works of art, which makes them unique until today. They have not become just post-Impressionists. They invented their own styles and influenced other artists, most importantly – but not exclusively – the Expressionists. That’s why Munch and Van Gogh remain relevant and have their major place in art history.
The Munch Museum in Oslo holds the largest Edvard Munch collection with some 1,100 paintings and over 25,000 works on paper. The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam owns the most important Van Gogh collection. Therefore, it was logic for the two institutions to join forces and organize the landmark show Munch : Van Gogh. Incidentally, the Amsterdam exhibition offered roughly 20 paintings more than the Oslo show. In addition to works from the two museums mentioned above, the catalogue and exhibition included many works from other public and private collections in Europe and the United States.
The show in Amsterdam featured worldwide known paintings such as Van Gogh’s Sunflowers and one version of Munch’s The Scream. Lesser known art, but often of comparable quality, was on display too; those artworks alone were worth the trip.
The exhibitions and the catalogue put the two artists side by side. Edvard Munch was born in Loten in Norway in 1863, Vincent Van Gogh in Zundert in the Netherlands in 1853. Although the Dutch artist was ten years older, both men decided to become artists in 1880. Both spent their formative years in Paris at the same time, but apparently never met. They were both interested in the same kind of questions regarding la condition humaine: love, death, fear, suffering, solace, the cycle of life. From 1900 onwards, both were heralded as the fathers of modern art.
The Amsterdam exhibition started with two self-portraits by the two artists and ended with a Munch self-portrait, finished when he was an old man. Munch and Van Gogh are considered some of the best (self-) portraitists in the history of art.
In Amsterdam, Van Gogh’s Starry Night from the Museum of Modern Art in New York could be admired together with his Starry Night over the Rhône (1888) from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris and Munch’s Starry Night (1922-1924). Munch’s At The Roulette Table in Monte Carlo (1892) was shown next to Van Gogh’s The Dance Hall in Arles (1888).
However, the differences between Munch and Van Gogh may be more telling than the similarities. Vincent Van Gogh died at the age of 37, shooting himself in 1890, whereas Edvard Munch lived until the age of 80 and died peacefully in January 1944. But in 1893 already, he had heard a scream, and drawn it with a crayon. In Amsterdam, The Scream was shown together with Van Gogh’s The Bridge at Trinquetaille (1888) from a private collection, depicting a street scene including a girl in the foreground who may be screaming, although her facial expression is not shown.
Vincent Van Gogh found his mature style around 1887 and had only three years to develop it until his suicide. Edvard Munch had his breakthrough in the 1890s with his Symbolist subject paintings and evocative landscapes. From 1880 until his death, he managed to finish almost 2,000 paintings.
Some of Van Gogh’s last paintings from 1890 are shown, including the dark and disturbing Wheatfield with Crows, the rather lovely Farms near Auvers as well as Wheatfield under Thunderclouds, an empty landscape which can be interpreted as menacing and is part of the Van Gogh Museum.
Vincent Van Gogh may not been aware of Edvard Munch at all. No letter or other document could be found showing that he knew about the Norwegian artist. According to letters, Munch however admired the work of the Dutchman, visited some of his exhibitions and even emulated his approach.
Overall, Munch seems to have been the more tormented, disturbed of the two artists. Anyway, his art seems more radical. One of his greatest paintings is Red Virginia Creeper (1888-1900) from the Munch Museum in Oslo, showing a house with a façade covered in blood and a man with a frightened, tortured face in the foreground.
Both artists were tormented souls, soulmates, who probably would have become best friends had they met. The one such person Vincent Van Gogh got to know and lived with for some time at the end of his life in Arles was Paul Gauguin. The encounter ended badly for the Dutchman who hurt himself and had to be hospitalized.
Vincent Van Gogh died too young, penniless and largely ignored by the artworld, Edvard Munch enjoyed recognition and financial success. They both created colorful, expressive and innovative artworks.
The catalogue and the Amsterdam exhibition were eye-openers regarding Munch for me, who knew from the Norwegian mainly the four versions of his Scream. But he offers much more than that. A visit of the Oslo Munch Museum has become mandatory. As for the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the same holds true. But that’s a museum I have already visited more than once (and will surely visit again).
The catalogue Munch : Van Gogh explores parallels (and differences) in the background, style, technique, use of space and color as well as the personal and artistic motivation of the two artists. A parallel chronology and many color illustrations complement the excellent publication.
Magne Bruteig, Maite van Dijk: Munch : Van Gogh. Mercatorfonds, 2015, 239 pages with many reproductions in color and essays by six scholars. Order the book / The catalogue from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.fr, Amazon.de.
Article added on March 1, 2016 at 21:52 CET. Correction on March 2, 2016: name of curator Maite van Dijk. Further reading added on April 12, 2019: Van Gogh on the Verge of Insanity and The Thannhauser Gallery: Marketing Van Gogh.
