The Private Journals of Edvard Munch: We Are Flames Which Pour Out of the EarthScandinavia's most famous painter, the Norwegian Edvard Munch (1863-1944), is probably best known for his painting The Scream, a universally recognized icon of terror and despair. (A version was stolen from the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway, in August 2004, and has not yet been recovered.) But Munch considered himself a writer as well as a painter. Munch began painting as a teenager and, in his young adulthood, studied and worked in Paris and Berlin, where he evolved a highly personal style in paintings and works on paper. And in diaries that he kept for decades, he also experimented with reminiscence, fiction, prose portraits, philosophical speculations, and surrealism. Known as an artist who captured both the ecstasies and the hellish depths of the human condition, Munch conveys these emotions in his diaries but also reveals other facets of his personality in remarks and stories that are alternately droll, compassionate, romantic, and cerebral. This English translation of Edvard Munch's private diaries, the most extensive edition to appear in any language, captures the eloquent lyricism of the original Norwegian text. The journal entries in this volume span the period from the 1880s, when Munch was in his twenties, until the 1930s, reflecting the changes in his life and his work. The book is illustrated with fifteen of Munch's drawings, many of them rarely seen before. While these diaries have been excerpted before, no translation has captured the real passion and poetry of Munch's voice. This is a translation that lets Munch speak for himself and evokes the primal passion of his diaries. J. Gill Holland's exceptional work adds a whole new level to our understanding of the artist and the depth of his scream. |
Other editions - View all
The Private Journals of Edvard Munch: We Are Flames Which Pour Out of the Earth Edvard Munch No preview available - 2005 |
The Private Journals of Edvard Munch: We Are Flames Which Pour Out of the Earth Edvard Munch No preview available - 2005 |
Common terms and phrases
2005 The Munch answer Artists Artists Rights Society asked began begins Berlin blue Bødtker body Brandt café colors comes dance dark Davidson College dead death door Edvard Munch entries everything exhibits eyes face fall feel felt Flames friends Frieze Fru Heiberg garden Germany hair hand happened head heard heart human Ibsen inside Italy Jong journal kiss knew Kristiania ladies later laughed leave light Lithographic live looked married meet morning moved Munch Museum night Norwegian once Oslo painted Paris picture portrait Scream sick side sitting smiled soft standing stone stood stories strange street studies suddenly summer talked thing thought took trees walked whole window Woll woman women York young
Popular passages
Page 6 - In front, by a stream - here, as it were - sits a man so laden with guilt that he cannot quite free himself from the earth's crust. I call him remorse for a wasted life. He sits and dips his fingers in the running brook to wash them clean, and he is racked and tormented by the knowledge that he will never succeed - never in all eternity will he be free to live the resurrected life. He must stay for ever in his own hell.
Page 5 - Dit Mot var stort naar Hopen stod og gapte og Liv og Kunst slog op sit troldske Spil. Vi ringer nu for alt du vandt og tapte, for alt du levet i din Ensomhet og skapte. Vi ringer. Du vil evig vaere til!
Page 4 - At digte , — det er at holde dommedag over sig selv. (To live is to war with trolls in the cave of the heart and mind. To write is to hold the judgment of doomsday over one's self.) This was also Hunch's war.