Edvard Munch: Between the Clock and the Bed features approximately 45 paintings produced between the 1880s and the 1940s, with seven on view in the United States for the first time. The exhibition unfolds in eight thematically-focused galleries that explore Munch’s long-term engagement with particular subjects that recur throughout his career—love, death, sickness, psychological turmoil and mortality, especially his own. The paintings on view, many deeply personal works from Munch’s own collection now held by the Munch Museum, as well as loans from institutions and private lenders from around the world, also demonstrate Munch’s liberated, self-assured painting style and technical abilities including bravura brushwork, innovative compositional structures, the incorporation of visceral scratches and marks on the canvas and his exceptional use of intense, vibrant color.” — SFMOMA
“When you consider that Munch felt that he didn’t really hit his stride until his 50s and that his career doesn’t map against traditional paths of art history, then the latter part of his career warrants a closer look,” said Gary Garrels, Elise S. Haas Senior Curator of Painting and Sculpture at SFMOMA. “Munch’s influence can be felt in the work of many artists such as Georg Baselitz, Marlene Dumas, Katharina Grosse, Asger Jorn, Bridget Riley and particularly Jasper Johns, who became fascinated by the cross hatch patterns in Munch’s Self-Portrait. Between the Clock and the Bed.”
Edvard Munch in his winter studio, 1938; courtesy the Munch Museum, Oslo
Edvard Munch, Ashes, 1925; oil on canvas; 54 15/16 x 78 3/4 in.; photo: courtesy the Munch Museum, Oslo
Edvard Munch, Eye in Eye, 1899–1900; oil on canvas; 53 9/16 x 43 5/16 in.; photo: courtesy the Munch Museum, Oslo
Edvard Munch, Moonlight, 1893; oil on canvas; 55 5/16 x 53 1/8 in.; The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo
Edvard Munch, Self-Portrait. Between the Clock and the Bed, 1940–43; oil on canvas; 58 7/8 x 47 7/16 in.; photo: courtesy the Munch Museum, Oslo
Edvard Munch, Self-Portrait in Hell, 1903; oil on canvas; 32 1/4 x 26 in.; photo: courtesy the Munch Museum, Oslo
Edvard Munch, Self-Portrait with Cigarette, 1895; 43 ½ x 33 11/16 in.; The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo
Edvard Munch, Self-Portrait with Hand Under Cheek, 1911; oil on canvas; 32 11/16 x 27 3/8 in.; photo: courtesy the Munch Museum, Oslo
Edvard Munch, Self-Portrait with the Spanish Flu, 1919; oil on canvas; 59 1/16 x 51 9/16 in.; The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo
Edvard Much, Sick Mood at Sunset. Despair, 1892; oil on canvas; 36 ¼ x 26 3/8 in.; Thielska Galleriet, Stockholm
Edvard Munch, Starry Night, 1922–24; oil on canvas, 47 7/16 x 39 3/8 in.; photo: courtesy the Munch Museum, Oslo
Edvard Munch, The Artist and His Model, 1919–21; oil on canvas; 47 7/16 x 78 3/4 in.; photo: courtesy the Munch Museum, Oslo
Edvard Munch, The Dance of Life, 1925; oil on canvas; 56 5/16 x 81 7/8 in.; photo: courtesy the Munch Museum, Oslo
Edvard Munch, The Sick Child, 1907; oil on canvas; 46 ¾ x 47 5/8 in.; Tate Modern, London
The exhibition is curated by Gary Garrels, Elise S. Haas Senior Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Sheena Wagstaff, Leonard A. Lauder Chairman, Department of Modern and Contemporary Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and Jon-Ove Steihaug, director of exhibitions and collections at the Munch Museum, Oslo, with Caitlin Haskell, associate curator of painting and sculpture at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Images courtesy San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.