Edward Munch and The Scream (The Cry)

             Edvard Munch was an influential Norwegian painter and printmaker whose evocative painting "The Scream" meant to imply existential anguish and fear. However, as mass production and technology have made advances the perspective placed in a post-modernistic setting when viewing the painting can be seen taking a different meaning. This is due directly to the attainability of viewing the once "high brow" art that has become a "low brow" mass, pop culture commodification. This can be seen in numerous outlets from postcards, ink pens, and birthday balloons, yet Hollywood kept somewhat of an original perspective with the horror classic "Scream." I hope to show that while downgrading the original piece of artworks mastery, many aspects of postmodernism actually enhance the piece with their inventive ways to reproduce the image while leaving interpretation of meaning to the audience through the utilization of theories concerning authenticity and reproduction.
             Mechanical reproduction meant that many of the famous works by artists would become readily available because people can view these images in books and can even own copies or facsimiles which they can put on their walls in their homes. Nowadays in the 21st century, multiple contexts are now possible for a single piece of artwork that in the past would only be viewable from a single place such as a museum. The meaning of each image or item produced with the image on it changes within each particular context. For instance, Hollywood kept the original fear intact with their movie portrayal of the image but used only a masked individual with the same type of facial expression. Thus the work can be seen as an example of how influential Munch's work was going to be on the expressionism movement of the day and later in a more advanced setting.
             In Munch's piece, "The Cry" one can view the image and receive the feeling of existential anguish coming from the canvas. This work shows the s...

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Edward Munch and The Scream (The Cry). (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 18:07, April 25, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/14894.html