Where to See Edvard Weie

Edvard Munch had many exhibitions during his lifetime. In his home town of Oslo, shows of his work appeared at Blomqvist's (1909, 1918), Dioramalokalet (1897, 1900, 1904, 1910, 1911), and Kunstnernes Hus (1951). Other venues included the National Gallery (1927) and the Rikshospitalets Lokaler (1884). Munch's work was exhibited frequently outside Norway. Venues included Berlin (1892, 1893, 1895, 1914, 1927), Copenhagen (1893, 1915, 1955), Stockholm (1894, 1913, 1917, 1937, 1941), and Zurich (1922, 1932, 1952, 1957). American audiences could view Munch's art in New York (1912, 1913, 1960, 1963, 1964), Boston (1950), Chicago (1951), and San Francisco (1915, 1945). In 1963, the Munch-museet opened in Oslo to house the large collection of his work that Munch bequeathed to the Municipality of Oslo.

Edvard Weie (1879-1943) was a Norwegian artist, primarily a painter. He is known for his contributions to Norwegian Expressionism. Weie's prints are less widely recognised than his paintings, but they offer insight into his artistic range. Weie studied at the Norwegian National Academy of Craft and Art Industry, and later with Johan Nordhagen. His early work shows the influence of Impressionism and Neo-romanticism, styles he moved away from as he developed his own Expressionist style. Weie's prints often feature similar subjects to his paintings: figures, portraits, and interiors. His printmaking techniques included woodcuts and lithographs. These prints tend to have strong lines and simplified forms. Colour is often used sparingly, but effectively, to create mood. Weie's prints are characterised by an emotional intensity and a focus on subjective experience, typical of Expressionism. Although not as numerous as his paintings, Weie's prints are valuable for understanding the breadth of his artistic vision. They are held in several public collections, including the National Museum in Oslo.

Edvard Munch (1863-1944) is important because of his impact on modern art, particularly Expressionism. His art explored themes of suffering, love, rejection, and loneliness. Munch studied art in Oslo during the early 1880s. His painting *The Sick Child* (1886) caused controversy due to its emotional intensity. From 1892 to 1908, Munch produced the works for which he is best known. His art from this period displays inner tension through vivid colours, swirling forms, and energetic brushwork. Munch's *Frieze of Life* is a series of paintings depicting life themes. *The Scream*, part of this series, exists in four versions and multiple lithographs. It conveys terror and mental distress through colour and composition. Munch aimed to capture emotional moods, comparing it to a gramophone replaying sounds. Living in Paris from 1896 to 1898, Munch created lithographs and posters for plays. By the early 20th century, his critical reception improved. Retrospectives occurred in Oslo and Berlin in 1927, with a graphics exhibition in Stockholm in 1929. Despite the Nazis removing his art from German museums in 1937, Munch's influence grew. His use of colour and line influenced artists such as Picasso, Kandinsky, and Matisse.

It is difficult to make generalisations about Edvard Munch's techniques, as the emotional content of the painting often dictated his approach. His method was also highly symbolic. For instance, the crimson lily on the left of the picture in the foreground is apparently Munch’s symbol for art. Although Munch's approach may look spontaneous and unplanned, the organisation of the canvas was carefully rehearsed in preliminary drawings, which were carried out on the canvas itself. The close-grained linen canvas was sized to give an overall warm mid-tone. In the finished work, the ground can be seen in the face in the foreground and on either side of the tree. The charcoal under-drawing was next applied to the canvas. It was evidently detailed and remains clearly visible in the face. Munch used a wide variety of techniques to apply the paint. These included turpentine washes, scumbling, over-drawing and scratching into the paint surface with a dry, bright hog's hair brush. For Munch, changes in technique were related to the emotional content of the work.

Edvard Munch's art affected many later artists. His mature style defined trends that subsequent generations of avant-garde artists explored. His use of colour and line prefigured the moods of Picasso’s Blue and Rose Periods. They also prefigured the non-figurative work of Wassily Kandinsky in Russia, German Expressionism, and the bright colour of Fauvism and Henri Matisse in France. Munch's painting of 1884, *Morning* (originally *A Servant Girl*), was on view at the Norwegian pavilion. From 1896 to 1898, Munch lived in Paris, where he produced lithographs and made posters for Norwegian plays being performed at the Théâtre de l’Oeuvre. During this period, Munch met several Impressionists and painted some of his most significant work. In 1927, he had a retrospective of over 200 works at the National Galleries of Oslo and Berlin, and in 1929 a major exhibition of graphics in Stockholm at the National Museum. In 1936, he exhibited in England, but the following year the Nazis removed his work from display in Germany on the grounds that it, like all avant-garde art, was degenerate.

Edvard Munch had a significant impact on many artists. His use of intense colour, distorted forms, and enigmatic themes, drawing on Symbolist ideas, influenced German Expressionism in the early twentieth century. Munch's early life experiences shaped his artistic vision. Losing his mother and sister to tuberculosis, coupled with his father's oppressive religious fundamentalism and mental instability, led him to be preoccupied with mortality. He channelled this morbid fascination into his art. Munch's artistic journey included formal training. At sixteen, he attended technical college before transitioning to the Royal Drawing School. He also received private art lessons and a scholarship to study in Paris with Léon Bonnat. While in Paris for the Exposition Universelle of 1889, he encountered the work of Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. These artists, along with his earlier training, helped him develop his expressive style. Throughout the 1880s and 1890s, Munch experimented with brushstrokes, colour, and emotional themes, creating etchings, lithographs, woodcuts, and paintings. His time in France led to a loosening of his style and a more expressive approach.

Edvard Weie was associated with Expressionism, an early 20th-century artistic movement. Expressionism is difficult to define with exactitude; unlike Cubism, Futurism, Dadaism, or Surrealism, Expressionism lacks a clear set of activities shared by its practitioners. It is sometimes viewed as a distinctly German phenomenon, flourishing for specific social and political reasons. However, it had a wider significance that goes beyond the transmission of habits and tricks. Expressionism seems to deal with universals: vision, subjectivism, distortion, and revolt. It involves interaction and interfusion of the arts: literature, art, and music. Strindberg can be called the first Expressionist. The interaction of Strindberg and Munch in Berlin and Paris was an event of great significance, since the flow of ideas from one medium to another was established.

Edvard Weie is known for his rocky landscapes and harbour views of Christianso, a tiny fortified island in the Baltic. He rendered these scenes in Cezanne-influenced blocks of colour. These paintings are considered his finest work and among the most concentrated bodies of landscape painting in Danish art.