Edward Munch

Edvard Munch was an influential Norwegian painter and print maker whose evocative, picture The Scream also known as The Cry (1893) original meaning meant to imply existential anguish or 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 which 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 post cards, 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 art works 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

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Behind him a couple (his two friends) is walking together in the opposite direction. If that’s the case, then The Cry is worth a million. 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. Everyone can relate to what this piece expresses, and that is why it’s so popular still today and can be seen in so many different contexts in today’s society. Therefore in the painting there is an underlying meaning of dread inscribed that one should not overlook when analyzing the classical work. From decks of playing cards to tips for relieving stress, these new ways to represent anguish are invented by those who chose to form a relational feeling from the original Munch piece. These newer renditionings are just a new way of the computer being capable of changing paradigms in art. Technology is a brooding field that will eventually enable society to recreate the painted image possibly in a painting that is electronic even. The percussiveness of the motif shows that it also speaks to our day and age. The piece of artwork speaks better than actual words to describe it, which makes it something spectacular. I painted this picture; painted the clouds as real blood. I stopped and looked out across the fjord. People are scared of things they don’t understand or cannot relate to.

Common topics in this essay:
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Approximate Word count = 1355
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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