The Scream

“The Scream” is one of the most celebrated and recognized paintings in art history. The Norwegian artist Edvard Munch’s image was painted in 1893.

Although this fact is often forgotten, Munch intended “The Scream” to be part of a series, known as the “Frieze of Life” which explores three different themes : Love, Anxiety and Death. “The Scream” was the final work of the Love theme, and signified despair because according to Munch, despair was the ultimate outcome of love.

This painting shows a bald, mouth open and deformed figure standing on a bridge under a yellow-orange sky. This central figure barely looks human and the background figures are unidentifiable.

When it comes to the setting, this scene has a real location. The landscape in the background is Oslofjord, viewed from the hill of Ekeberg, in Oslo. Thanks to the artist’s dynamic use of curving lines and strong colors, the composition has an intense energy.

From my point of view, the central figure isn’t screaming. It's his inner self, the person he's keeping locked away inside, coming out to show the frustration which life can bring onto people. I think that we all know this feeling, and we all hold it inside of ourselves.

Moreover, in 2013, “The Scream” was one of four paintings that the Norwegian postal service chose for a series of stamps marking the 150th anniversary of Edvard Munch’s birth.

What it's also very interesting, it’s the fact that in the late twentieth century, “The Scream” was imitated and parodied. There are a lot of of fun parodies of this painting:

Screaming Homer

Screaming Macaulay Culkin known as Kevin from “Home alone”

Screaming Squidward from “SpongeBob SquarePants”

Screaming Joker from “Batman”

And what about you, do you think that creating a parody of famous work of art is suitable? Do you like this type of art?