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There are days, as the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch well knew, when it is impossible to express one's feelings with words and one image is enough.
For those who may be, for one reason or another, experiencing such a moment, the British Museum would like to help. Opening next month, it will host the largest Munch footprint exhibition in the UK for nearly half a century. The centerpiece is a lithograph of the iconic work of the artist, The Scream.
Having designed this exhibition five years ago, curator Giulia Bartrum has programmed its opening as "pure serendipity" – certainly when we all worry about bloody Brexit. But it's pure coincidence.
According to Bartrum, almost since its creation, Munch's image has been used to represent the human condition at different times in history. "It was used during the First World War and at Greenham Common by peace activists. It is used by the remnants outside the parliament. You can plan this exhibition at any time and you always want to get into a moment of society. When you look at images of The Scream in the story, it comes back all the time.
"It just shows that it is an image of all time. We will always be worried about something and currently we are worried about a lot of things. Which is great in a way, but I think it takes all the weight off poor Munch and what he was trying to do as an artist.
The Scream has been described as the second most recognizable image in the history of art. She is one of the few works of art to have her own emoji. But it was created in response to a specific incident experienced by the artist in early 1892 while he was walking on a road over Oslo with two friends.
"Suddenly the sky turned red like blood," he wrote, "There was blood and tongues of fire over the blue-black fjord and the city. My friends walked and I remained trembling with anxiety. through nature. "
The Scream at Sotheby's in 2012. Most of the 80 prints of the exhibition were lent by the Munch Museum in Oslo. Photo: Stefan Wermuth / Reuters
The first versions of the image were in color, created the following year in tempera on cardboard. There are actually four color versions: two at the Munch Museum in Oslo, one in the city's national gallery and a fourth, which sold in 2012 for $ 120m (£ 90m), between individuals.
Most of the more than 80 copies of the exhibition were loaned by the Munch Museum in Oslo, which will not lend the paintings themselves, says Bartrum, after two brand-name flights in 1994 and 2004 (the works were recovered each time). "They are very, very worried," she says.
In any case, it is the black and white lithography of the image, made in 1895, that made the image and the famous artist, she said. Even these are very rare, with only about twenty copies, and as the Munch museum is too fragile to travel, the exhibition had to be borrowed from a former collector.
It was installed Wednesday on a blood red wall reminiscent of the dramatic sky that had so much gripped the artist. "In black and white printing, it condenses [the image]he refines that figure, "she says. "The bands of red, translated into black and white … it's like a tuning fork, with the [waves] resonating around you. "
Nevertheless, this is not his favorite work in the exhibition – and those looking for images to capture a sense of existential suffering will certainly have the same scene choice over Oslo.
Being so famous for a single image is more a curse than a blessing, says Bartrum, "because it puts [Munch] out of context. Yes, it's great that it's instantly recognizable, but if you can just wear a little badge saying, "I want to scream" because you're having a bad day and that's it. is an emoji … it means that people use it and do not do it "Do not think at all.
"I've always felt that I wanted to give Munch back his place in history and show The Scream as he originally envisioned it."
• Edvard Munch: Love and Angst, supported by the AKO Foundation, opens April 11
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