Edvard Munch: Between the Clock and the Bed
Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (1863–1944) attained fame early in his career for his depictions of human anxiety. Throughout his career, Munch regularly revisited subjects from his earlier years, exploring them with renewed inspiration and intensity over time. Self-Portrait: Between the Clock and the Bed (1940–43) was one of his final such works and it serves as a lens to reassess Munch’s oeuvre.
On view Floor 3 at The Met Breuer, 945 Madison Ave., NY, NY, beginning November 15, 2017 until February 4, 2018.
Edvard Munch (Norwegian, 1863–1944). Self-Portrait between the Clock and the Bed, 1940–43. Oil on canvas, 58 7/8 x 47 1/2 in. Munch Museum, Oslo
This exhibition will feature 43 of the artist’s landmark compositions created over a span of six decades, including 16 self-portraits and works that have never before been seen in the United States. More than half of the works on view were part of Munch’s personal collection and remained with him throughout his life.
Edvard Munch was one of Modernism’s most significant artists. He was active throughout more than sixty years; from the time he made his debut in the 1880s, right up to his death in 1944. Munch was part of the Symbolist movement in the 1890s, and a pioneer of expressionist art from the beginning of the 1900s onward. His tenacious experimentation within painting, graphic art, drawing, sculpture, photo and film has given him a unique position in Norwegian as well as international art history.
Catalogue for the Edvard Munch: Between the Clock and the Bed exhibition. Fifty masterworks from Munch’s career illustrate this intimate study of the enigmatic artist and his remarkable legacy.
To plan your visit, purchase the catalogue, or discover related events, visit the museum’s website at:
https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2017/edvard-munch
To learn more about the life of Edvard Munch, visit the Munch Museum, in Oslo, Norway, online at:
http://munchmuseet.no/en/munch
About The Met Breuer
On March 18, 2016, The Metropolitan Museum of Art opened The Met Breuer, its new space dedicated to modern and contemporary art. Housed in the landmark building designed originally by the great Bauhaus architect Marcel Breuer, The Met Breuer enables visitors to engage with the art of the 20th and 21st centuries through the global breadth and historical reach of The Met’s unparalleled collection and resources through a range of exhibitions, commissions, performances, and artist residencies.
In this contained, self-confident building on Madison Avenue at the corner of 75th Street, Breuer created a personal and intimate museum experience. The entrance experience is a slow procession that begins with a walk under a low concrete canopy and over a sunken garden, which reveals great glass walls into the lower ground spaces, before entering the grand, iconic lobby with its rows upon rows of moonlike shades.
As Breuer was famously the youngest furniture master at the Bauhaus in Dessau, where he invented tubular-steel furniture at the age of 24, there are numerous fine details and materials found throughout this building…and there are wonderful benches to occupy while marveling over the beauty of each stairwell, shown above, between the floors.
The Breuer building has proved its status as a singular museum experience unlike any other, and remains one of the most recognizable modern icons in New York and one of the world’s landmark arts buildings. It is in honor of the influential architect who designed it that The Metropolitan Museum of Art has named the building The Met Breuer.
