Collection Publications: Klinger to Kollwitz Labels: 7

Although Munch was Norwegian by birth and considered primarily a Symbolist artist, his work had a profound effect on German Expressionism. In 1892 he was invited to travel to Germany to exhibit his paintings with the Association of Berlin Artists. His nonacademic style, however, was immediately declared a disgrace to art, and was rejected by many of the traditional artists and critics. The uproar made him famous, and for the three subsequent years he spent in Germany, his exhibitions were considerably more successful. Munch began to work in the print medium while in Berlin in 1894, and this lithograph is his first graphic self-portrait. Like Kollwitz, Munch depicted himself in various media throughout his life. His surroundings in his painted self-portraits frequently contained death imagery and often alluded to his psychological state. Here, Much’s disembodied head against the empty black background suggests a separation of mind and body, or a split between his emotional and spiritual sides. The configuration of the ominous skeletal arm (removed in the second state) below the self-portrait and the inscribed name above it resembles a tombstone.