The Politics of Art & Authenticity

courtesy of MOMA

Munch’s “The Scream” initially looked to me like a five year old had his way with a piece of canvas. But whenever I look at a piece of art, which is not very often, I have to step back and think, “Could I do that?” The answer is usually no. This makes me look again at piece with greater interest and attention to detail. In the case of Munch, I caught onto how deliberate his strokes with the pastel crayons are. Some lines are terse and bunched densely together. Other lines are long and flowing. The use of stroke gives life to the piece, and makes portions of it discernable. Portions which really shouldn’t be. A few, orange, squiggly lines is supposed to be the sky? Give me a break. Yet, I know it is the sky. And Munch uses colors is such a way that nothing seems right. It delivers emotion; not to mention the face. Why is it screaming? The whole damn painting just irks me. Nothing seems as it should. The sky is orange, the boardwalk red, the person barely looks like a person, and there are two other people on the boardwalk. Those other two guys are the most annoying because this thing in the front is “bugging out,” and the other two guys are just “chilling.” Once again, I revisit the painting from a different perspective wondering if I could accomplish all of this confusion and emotion. The answer is no. I guess Munch did his job.