October 6, 2015 - 16:37 AMT
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza hosts "Edvard Munch. Archetypes" exhibit

The Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza is hosting Edvard Munch. Archetypes, the first exhibition to be held on the Norwegian artist in Madrid since 1984. Organised with the generous collaboration of the Munch-Museet in Oslo, the show brings together a selection of eighty works by the artist, who is hailed today as one of the fathers of modern art along with Cézanne, Van Gogh and Gauguin, Art Daily reports.

The latest publications and most recent exhibitions have succeeded in freeing Munch of many of the stereotypes to which he has been subjected in order to show him not only as a universal symbol of the anguish and alienation of the modern man but, above all, as a key creator in shaping contemporary artistic sensitivity. Curated by Paloma Alarcó and Jon-Ove Steinaug, Edvard Munch. Archetypes aims to follow the same path, focusing on the most unknown aspects of his creative force and ability to synthesise contemporary man’s obsessions.

Although Munch never abandoned figurative art, he broke away from the visible world and explored the hidden spiritual dimension of reality in order to immortalise the most universal themes of life, love and death through an innovative artistic language that evolved from symbolism to expressionism.

Photo: Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation