Edvard Munch By Himself

Just returned from a whirlwind six day trip to London. So many people to see, so much art to view, so many shops to hit (not to mention the actual reason for my trip - a Ph.D review). One of the exhibitions I went to was the above mentioned Edvard Munch By Himself at the Royal Academy of Arts.

The exhibit is primarily of Munch's self portraits, of which there are many. I had no idea, in fact, that Munch was such a prolific artist. The brushstrokes actually remind me a bit of Lucian Freud's self portraits, which is maybe why I liked the exhibit so much. However, Munch was certainly not a jovial fellow. Sickness, despair, paranoia, loneliness and death are generally the focus of much of his work. Even a still life painting of flowers was entitled "Flowers of Pain". Not a show for the depressed, but as usual the Royal Academy assembled a great display of Munch's work.