Viking Magazine - August 2013 - 21

" The Sick Child, " 1907
and the " isms "
Well traveled and curious about all kinds of
art, Edvard Munch has long been diffi cult to
place in the pantheon of art. Here's a quick
primer to the various " isms " of his day
Naturalism
What it was: An artistic
movement whose aim was to
depict the world accurately
and objectively, in opposition
to the Rococo and Romantic
movements so popular in
the 1800s.
Cultural Height:
mid- and late 1800s
Big Names:
Eugène Boudin, Josef Israels,
Edvard Bergh, Jules BastienLepage,
Jean-François Millet,
Albert Charpin
Munch Connection:
Munch's most important
painting teachers, Christian
Krogh and Leon Bonnat, were
both strictly Naturalist painters.
Impressionism
What it was:
A style of painting that used
pure, saturated colors and
short, broken brushstrokes
to create innovative and
modern studies of light
and shadow.
Cultural Height:
mid-1870s and 1880s
Big Names: Claude Monet,
Max Liebermann, Camille
Pissarro, Edgar Degas, PierreAuguste
Renoir
Munch Connection:
Was familiar with the
Impressionists and attended
their exhibition in Paris in
1885 and in Copenhagen in
1888. Munch experimented
with Impressionist
techniques in some of his
early works.
Symbolism
What it was: An
international avantgarde
artistic movement
that sought to explore
mythology, occultism and
the subconscious. Symbolists
were more interested in
ideas and feelings than the
material world.
Cultural Height:
1880s and 1890s
Big Names: Paul Gauguin,
Gustav Klimt, Gustave
Moreau, Jan Toorop, Fernand
Khnopff, James Ensor.
Pablo Picasso dabbled
in Symbolism during his
formative Blue Period.
Munch Connection:
Munch traveled frequently in
Symbolist circles. Many art
experts call him a Symbolic
Naturalist because he was
intensely interested in
emotions and the psyche,
but chose real subjects rather
than fantastical, monstrous
or mythological creatures.
Cubism
What it was: An infl uential,
highly abstracted visual style
connected with African art.
Cubists emphasized the
two-dimensional nature
of the artist's canvas with
geometric forms and
fractured objects.
Cultural Height: From
1907 to 1914
Big Names: Pablo Picasso,
Georges Braque, Robert and
Sonia Delaunay, Juan Gris,
Marcel Duchamp
Munch Connection:
Around 1907 Munch
attempted a new style of
painting that he described
as using " broad distinct
lines, horizontal and vertical
lines as well as converging,
diagonal strokes. " He
called this simplifi ed linear
technique " proto-Cubism. "
German
Expressionism
What it was: An avantgarde
artistic movement that
sought to explore heightened
emotional responses.
Cultural Height:
From 1914 to 1929
Big Names: Ernest Ludwig
Kirchner, Wassily Kandinsky,
Franz Marc, Paul Klee,
August Macke
Munch's Connection:
Munch was considered a
hero and precursor to the
German Expressionists, so
much so that some of them
called him the Father of
German Expressionism.
Viking Magazine - August 2013

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