munch's 'scream' to hang for six months at moma
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12/5/12 10:50 AMMunch’s ‘Scream’ to Hang for Six Months at MoMA - NYTimes.com
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Munch Museum/Munch-Ellingsen Group/ArtistsRights Society (ARS), New York
Munch’s 1895 “Scream” willtemporarily be at the Modern.
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‘Scream’ to Go on View at MoMABy CAROL VOGELPublished: September 17, 2012
Edvard Munch’s 1895 version of “The Scream” — which became themost expensive artwork ever sold at auction when it brought nearly$120 million at Sotheby’s in May — will go on view at the Museum ofModern Art, courtesy of its new mystery owner, for six months,starting on Oct. 24.
“This is an incredible opportunity forour visitors to see something that isotherwise hard to see,” Glenn D.Lowry, the museum’s director, said ina telephone interview.
Munch made four versions of “TheScream” — an image that has become a universal symbol ofangst and existential dread — from 1893 to 1910. Three arein Norwegian museums and have not traveled for years.This one, a pastel on board, is the only “Scream” still inprivate hands and the only one in the United States; it hasnever before been shown publicly in New York, officials atMoMA say.
Depicting a hairless figure on a bridge under a brilliantyellow-orange sky, the composition was originallyconceived by Munch as part of his “Frieze of Life” series,which explores themes of love, angst and death. “Somepeople call it the Mona Lisa of Modern art,” Mr. Lowrysaid.
This version, the most colorful of the four, has a framepainted by the artist with a poem describing a walk atsunset (“I felt a whiff of melancholy — I stood/Still, deathlytired”) that inspired the work. (It is also unique among the“Screams” for its background figure turning to look outonto the cityscape.)
The New York financier Leon Black is said to have been thebuyer of the pastel at Sotheby’s, but nobody — includingMr. Black himself, officials at Sotheby’s or Mr. Lowry —
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12/5/12 10:50 AMMunch’s ‘Scream’ to Hang for Six Months at MoMA - NYTimes.com
Page 2 of 3http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/18/arts/design/munchs-scream-to-hang-for-six-months-at-moma.html?ref=design
Munch Museum/Munch-Ellingsen Group/ArtistsRights Society (ARS), New York
A Munch print called “Angst” will beone of several works from MoMA’sown collection to be displayed with“The Scream.”
A version of this article appeared in print on September 18, 2012, on page C1 of the New York edition with the headline:‘Scream’ To Go On View At MoMA.
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would confirm that he was the one lending the painting toMoMA.
Mr. Black is a member of MoMA’s board, however (as wellas of the board of the Metropolitan Museum of Art). He isalso one of this country’s foremost collectors, havingamassed a world-class art collection that includes paintingsby Manet, Cézanne and Degas; drawings by Raphael,Daumier and van Gogh; and sculptures by Brancusi,Gauguin and Degas.
Mr. Black, the chief executive of Apollo GlobalManagement, is said to have developed a passion for artafter studying it at Dartmouth College in the early 1970s.He has told friends that he considers “The Scream”particularly important because it is a precursor of 20th-
century Expressionism.
The pastel will be on view at MoMA through April 29, hanging in the first gallery on themuseum’s fifth floor, along with several prints that Munch made around the same time.“Over the years we have really built up our Munch holdings,” Mr. Lowry said. “But themain focus of the exhibition will be the pastel.”
Security at the museum will be extremely strict. Besides being one of the mostrecognizable images ever — reproduced on everything from mugs and T-shirts to keychains and inflatable dolls — “The Scream” is also one of the most often tempting tothieves. Versions have been stolen twice, first in 1994, when two burglars fled the NationalGallery of Norway in Oslo with an 1893 “Scream” (it was recovered unharmed later thatyear), and then in 2004, when masked gunmen stole the 1910 version, as well as Munch’s“Madonna,” from the Munch Museum, also in Oslo; both works were recovered two yearslater.
When Sotheby’s was selling the pastel, it was first put on view in London for five days, andmore than 7,500 people passed through airport-style security scanners and bag checks tosee it. When it then came to New York, the auction house restricted viewing to Sotheby’sclients only.
At MoMA, Mr. Lowry said: “It is our hope to maintain a normal flow of visitors and show itin a way so the public can best see it. But if the situation warrants, we might have to issuetimed tickets.”
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