A showcase of eighteen masterworks by one of the world’s greatest modern artists.

This important publication accompanies a major exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery, London, of paintings by Edvard Munch (1863–1944). The catalog and accompanying exhibition showcase eighteen major works from the collection of KODE Art Museums in Bergen, one of the most important collections of Munch paintings in the world. The works span the most significant part of Munch’s artistic development and have never before been shown as a group outside of Scandinavia.

This book explores this group of remarkable works in detail and considers the important role of its collector, Rasmus Meyer. The exhibition and publication include seminal paintings from Munch’s early “realist” phase of the 1880s, such as Morning and Summer Night, pivotal works that show the artist’s move towards the expressive and psychologically charged work for which he became famous. These paintings launched Munch’s career and set the stage for his renowned, highly expressive paintings of the 1890s. Such works are a major feature of the exhibition that includes remarkable canvases from Munch’s famous Frieze of Life series, which address profound themes of human existence, from love to death. Munch’s powerful use of color and form marked him as one of the most radical painters at the turn of the twentieth century.

This fully illustrated publication includes a catalog of the works, with contributions by leading experts in their field from KODE and the Courtauld. 

Barnaby Wright is the Daniel Katz Curator of Twentieth-Century Art and deputy head of the Courtauld Gallery in London.