Symbolism is an artistic trademark that uses its imagery to represent either fear, anxiety, happiness, or a different variety of emotions through lines, shapes, colors, textures, spaces, and forms. At first, it was a literary movement but starting in the late 19th and most of the 20th centuries more artists were starting to adopt the concept and it became the biggest trend in post-modernism art. Symbolism can incorporate a combination of realism, surrealism, naturalism, and romanticism (Heller, 2018). Artists use symbolism to convey to themselves or to the viewer that anything natural or synthetic could be interpreted as an emotional or spiritual connection. Symbolists often create their work through their imagination, personal experiences, or current events to leave clues so the observer can illuminate the motive behind their work. A work of art that depicts symbolism at its highest core is “The Scream” by Edvard Munch.
The Scream was created by Edvard Munch in the late 19th century and is one of the most famous art pieces in the world. Edvard Munch crafted this work of art on a flat canvas with a medium of oiled brushes to depict the symbolism of the art piece. He manages to brilliantly use an array of vibrant colors to convey its imagery in a dark and eerie tone from a viewer’s perspective. The foreground of the portrait is obviously the screaming man, however, the presence that surrounds the foreground is what makes it truly unique. The vanishing point of the portrait is at the torso of the screaming man and the artist draws the bridge with linear precision on a 90-degree angle with the two mysterious men being at the far left of the portrait. The sky and river that make up the background are detailed with swirls as if they were matching the facial expressions of the screaming caricature. This art piece is filled with visual aesthetics yet it gives us a nightmarish vibe that can be interpreted in many ways. It is revered as a classic masterpiece because of the symbolism behind it. However, what is the symbolism behind it, and what makes this art piece a classic masterpiece in so many people’s eyes?
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At an observer’s first glance, we are immediately drawn into the image and are left questioning the artist’s motive for it. When I first looked at it, I was fascinated by the illusion of depth that Munch detailed in this simplistic work of art and how he uses space to its full capacity. The screaming man elicited an emotional response from me. From anyone’s perspective, they can easily pinpoint that the man is expressing trauma, anxiety, and fright as he frantically covers his ears and screams in horror. The connection that is made between the screaming man and the environment that is surrounding him is explicitly well thought out by Munch. One of the few things that helped me decipher this art piece is how the cool and warm colors contrast each other in this painting and it relates to the distress the figure is going through. The cool colors that make up the circulating vast blue river could represent the terror that is bottled up inside him and the orange-reddish sky in the sunset represents his state of despair. The landscape conveys to the viewer that they are interpreting a chaotic scene and it symbolizes the tribulations he’s going through. According to the artist himself, he wrote an entry in his diary in 1892 describing a walk he took with two friends, and all of a sudden he was trembling in fear as he saw the sky turn red (Prideaux, 123-128). It was evidently apparent that the experience he endured that day was simulated in this painting.
Munch defined symbolism to its fullest extent as he crafted this masterpiece from his own personal experience. He wanted to emulate his anxiety to the open world around him. In my opinion, his objective was to exemplify the inner everyday turmoils we go through as individuals. In “The Scream” we can easily detect that the protagonist is uneasy within himself. The way he has his hands over his ears and his eyes stretched out as he is frantically screaming clarify that the main figure is being overwhelmed by his own misery and anguish. The two individuals at the far end of the bridge don’t seem to be engaged with the main figure’s catastrophe. Instead, they seem to be continuing their walk as they leave the man to deal with his own sentiments. What can this be alluded to? To me, the artist intended to illustrate to the audience that each individual suffers from despair at some point in their life; whether it’s due to changes in our society, losing a loved one, or suffering from rejection. The two distant men in the painting seem to stare at the shore below the bridge, perhaps pondering about their own inner turmoils. For this reason alone, this may what is impeding them from emitting empathy for the screaming man. The main figure has no one else to convey his thoughts with because everyone else around him is going through similar traumas.
Furthermore, it is most likely that Munch’s main incentive for this painting was to symbolize the anxiety of modern life. Originally “The Scream” was part of a collection series called “The Frieze of Life”, where Munch painted several portraits with the common theme of anxiety in the late 1800s (Cordulack, 2002). Throughout that time period in the late 1800s, the entire world was evolving and it was moving more rapidly than one could possibly grasp. Humanity as a whole was changing as societies were beginning to improve from a political and technological standpoint. The introduction of film, radio, the press, and printable news articles were becoming norms in our society and it refined the lives of the people who lived during those times. As breakthroughs in psychology, sociology, and anthropology were beginning to initiate the significance of our society, artists such as Munch wanted to exhibit their emotions about these groundbreaking changes (Gray, 2008). The Scream emphasizes how the modern world was at the time from Munch’s perspective. The man screaming wasn’t just him figuratively screaming, but screaming for us to understand how he is coping with the dramatic changes he’s going through. It signified to us to view the world from his retrospective and leaves us pondering about the turmoils he goes through in life.
After several years of its painting, “The Scream” still has a big influence on pop culture and remains one of the most distinguishable art pieces in post-modernism art. Munch crafted four different versions of this art piece; the first two original models were in 1893 with crayon and one with tempera, one in 1895 with pastel, and a replica in 1910 with tempera (Gamerman, 2012). With its allure of despair and anxiety, The Scream has been incorporated into movies, displayed in fashion, referenced in music, or even memes on social media. As an example, the facial expression of the famous scream has been mimicked on the cover by main protagonists of scary movies such as “Home Alone” and “Scream” and it has appeared in sitcoms such as The Simpsons and Family Guy; it even has it’s own emoji. In 2012, the 1895 version of “The Scream” was auctioned off for $120 million dollars in New York and it set a new Guinness World Record for the most expensive painting auctioned off (Guinness World Record News, 2012). The Scream is more popular than ever, it is a painting that is synonymous with the reality of isolation and the symbolism it displays.
Considered by some to be the first expressionist painting, “The Scream” is the definitive standard of a masterpiece depicting symbolism. Edvard Munch’s masterpiece corresponds the main figure to the environmental landscape that takes up the space of this portrait. He encapsulates the notion of despair, anxiety, and fear to its very limit with his excessive use of swirling lines and colors to make this art piece connect with the audience. The absence of hope that both the main figure and the two supporting characters in the background are experiencing enforces the viewer to reel in the same feeling when looking at those three tragic characters. As a true symbolist and expressionistic artist, Edvard Munch takes a glance at his innermost troubles by illustrating them for us to decipher it. In conclusion, the primary purpose of symbolism in art is that it should reflect our emotions from a contemplative standpoint rather than evaluating them objectively and The Scream portrays that convincingly.
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