THE DIFFERENT SIDES OF EDWARD M

It is incredibly expensive to bring in an art exhibition featuring an international star. Decisions are made years in advance. Then it is the actual transportation of priceless paintings across borders and setting up the whole exhibition. In this light, it is exciting that  the city of Genoa and the Foundation of Palazzo Ducale have decided to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of the most famous Norwegian artist, Edward Munch, at Palazzo Ducale where 120 of his paintings and lithographs are on display until April. 

  If there ever was an artist who has suffered from over exposure of one piece of work, it has to be Munch's painting "Scream". Thankfully, the original painting is not on display among the works selected for this exhibition, however, it is featured in the parallel exhibition of Andy Warhol's works titled  "After Munch". These are on show for the first time in Europe. 

 I have recently read Munch's biography by Atle Naess. Munch had a very stormy life full of dramatic events, such as being involved in a shooting incident where the other participant was his over jealous and totally obsessed girlfriend who would have been classified as a stalker, if it would have happened today. Munch's life story fresh in my mind, I was curious to see the works. 

  But I have to say, the exhibition left me lukewarm. There was a whole room dedicated to portraits of the family of Max Linde, Munch's supporter and someone who commissioned him when nobody else would. These were sweet and presumably the likeness was praised by everyone, but a whole room of these portraits? In general, there were a lot of portraits. There were very few works from his early years. Most of the lithographs did not speak to me at all. 

   If I compare this to last year's blockbuster at Palazzo Ducale, the Miro exhibition, it was not half as interestingly put together as the Miro was. There was one particularly delightful surprise at the end though: music by an English composer Frederick Delius, who met Munch in Paris around 1896. We are told that they both influenced each other and wanted to collaborate by creating a work which would combine painting with music. This never happened. We can only guess what kind of a painting would have accompanied the beautiful piece of music by Delius, "Aqvarelles". In any case, it is a very fitting tribute to Munch.