Becoming Edvard Munch: Influence, Anxiety, and Myth

Becoming Edvard Munch: Influence, Anxiety, and Myth brings together approximately 150 rarely seen works, including 75 paintings and 75 works on paper by Munch and contemporary artists including James Ensor, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, Max Klinger, and Claude Monet. Viewed in context, and in proximity to concurrent artistic trends, we are confronted with the truth that Edvard Munch wasn't nearly as dark and tormented as many of us have supposed. Rather, he was more shrewd than agonized, and keenly aware of that which would sell. Munch played the neurotic card adeptly in the course of promoting his work, though subject to relatively only as much heartbreak and sorrow as are most humans. This aspect of the exhibition is truly revelatory.

Becoming Edvard Munch: Influence, Anxiety, and Myth was organized by the Art Institute of Chicago, is exclusive to this sole venue and will not travel. Miss it and you may have cause to ... scream.