UNIVERSITATEA BABE-BOLYAI, CLUJ-NAPOCA FACULTATEA DE LITERE SPECIALIZAREA: ENGLEZA-NORVEGIANA

EDVARD MUNCH THE DANCE OF LIFE

Prof. coord. asist. drd. Roxana Dreve

Student: Tiron Crina Elena An I, En-No

2014

Edvard Munch was born in 1863 in Lten, a small town in Norway. Very shortly after his birth, his family moved to what is now Oslo. In 1881, Munch entered the city's Royal School of

Design, but he left after just a year in order to take a studio with other artists, whom would be later influentially mentored by the painter Christian Krohg. A few years later in 1885, Munch travelled to Paris and began studying the paintings of the Louvre. Whilst there, he joined the Kristiania Bohemia, an anarchist, radical group headed by Hans Jaeger who very probably inspired Munch to write the Literary Diaries about his life, spiritual experiences and thoughts on love and death. Munch's life was turbulent and emotional and his dark, troubled imagination was prone to his passions and fears and all of this emotion is powerfully reflected in his paintings. In later life, he returned to Oslo and resided in his Ekely estate, where he died of pneumonia. Edvard Munch is renowned for his representations of emotion. Associated with the international development of Symbolism, Munch experimented with many different themes, palettes, and styles of drawing. Though stylistically influenced by Paul Gauguin and the Nabis, Munchs subjects are drawn from his Scandinavian roots and his own tortured psyche. One of Edvard Munchs chief strengths as an artist lies in his ability to delineate and convey psychological processes. He may not be an exceptional draftsman or colorist, but he knows how to construct a composition so as to communicate to the viewers on a very basic emotional level. The Dance of Life, which Munch pained in 1900, becomes an example of Munchs strength as a psychologist and observer of human emotion and sensuality. This piece demonstrates erotic attraction, lust, jealousy, sadness, and even despair. Munch describes the scene in his diary: "I am dancing with my true love, a memory of her. A smiling, blond-haired woman enters who wishes to take the flower of love, but it won't allow itself to be taken. And on the other side one can see her dressed in black troubled by the couple dancing, rejected, as I was rejected from her dance."

In the foreground of this painting is a dance, lit by the moon in the background which reflects into the water. The painting is set along the shore of the Aasgaardstrand in Oslo. The reflection of the moon in the water is phallic giving the whole painting a sexual mood. The defining element of the painting inevitably becomes the girl at the center, dressed in orangered (slightly swirling), a color known to symbolize sexual attraction and passion. She and her mate resemble the rest of the couples, and it seems that they are being picked out for their compositionally central locus, not a specific feature. All of the dancing young women could be painted the same orange-red to the same effect, but it makes more painterly sense to colorize the figure that happened to be at the center - the symbolic stand-in for the rest. On the left side a young girl in a white dress and a smile on her face enters the scene. Her hand reaches out towards a flower in front of her. On the opposite side, an old woman stands in a black dress. She watches the dance of the center couple with a bitter facial expression, her hands folded in withdrawn. Instead of being their own actors, the two women on the edges manifest possible emotional developments of the central female character. As it sometimes occurs in dreams, the mind clones the protagonist into several alter-actors, one to the left, another to the right.

Munch's painting The Dance of Life can be interpreted from various viewpoints and on various levels. The transition of the female figures from adolescence to sexual maturity to old age gives argument that the painting deals with the everlasting cycle of life. these two girls embody the red dressed ladys hopes and fears, one of matrimony and happiness (the white dress), the other of death, abandonment, and mourning (the black dress). Conversely, the procession may suggest a chronological setup: the girls adult life begins from left, with virginal white innocence and progresses right, towards encounters with men, ending with possible widowhood,separation, or some type of disappointment. Again, this reading may apply to any of the dancing pairs, the central one standing in for the rest. The possibility of various different interpretations of Munch's painting The Dance of Life is clearly fascinating. Through his revelation of his most personal experiences, Munch strives to create universal symbols and values. Thus, this painting becomes a "parable of human existence and of destiny that dominates our adventure on earth".

SITOGRAFIE

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http://litmed.med.nyu.edu http://artandcritique.com http://societyarthistory.blogspot.ro http://www.edvard-munch.com http://www.mirror.co.uk