Poul Erik Tøjner And Bjarne Riiser Gundersen

The Scream. The Story of an Image

Skrik. Historien om et bilde

The Scream – The Story of an Image tells the entire story of Edvard Munch’s masterpiece, which, along with Mona Lisa, is perhaps the world’s most famous painting. From the time the picture was first exhibited in Berlin in 1893 until the time it was stolen for the second time from Oslo’s Munch Museum in 2004, Scream has led a turbulent life marked by scandals and abusive criticism, parodies and re-interpretations, objective debates and bitter conflicts. The story of the origin, interpretation, ownership, and burglary of Munch’s various takes on the Scream theme is fascinating. The pictures have served as sources of inspiration and of income. All in all, Munch’s Scream has accomplished what only a handful of other images have ever succeeded in doing: it has taken the leap out of art history and into society at large.

Bok 403
Forfatter 403
Photo: Trine Andersen/NTB Scanpix

POUL ERIK TØJNER is the director of the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark. Tøjner is also the author of Munch: In His Own Words, published by Forlaget Press in 2003, and which won Tøjner praise from the media as “the most interesting Munch researcher ever”. Munch: In His Own Words was named the best international art book by the New York Times Book Review in 2001.

BJARNE RIISER GUNDERSEN is a historian of ideas, works as a journalist in the weekly newspaper Morgenbladet and teaches journalism at Volda University College.