The Screaming Paintings

1147 Words3 Pages

The two paintings under discussion are by two famous artists of the 20th Century. They are Edvard Munch and Francis Bacon. Their paintings are based on the era of expressionism, where most painters were breaking from impressionism, which was embraced by the paintings of the 19th Century (Carl 47). Impressionism was based on paintings that only touched on the superficial objects, and not going in depth to explain the emotions around the paintings. Edvard Munch and Francis Bacon embraced expressionism to express subjective emotions, not just the objective part.

This new era of paintings were fueled with the current international disputes that were taking place.

People were filled with desperation and conflict, especially post World War One. These painters worked on their paintings to depict the disturbed tie s people were experiencing in terms of the horrors of massive human death, absence of joy and the death of human freedom. They regarded their paintings as a reflection of the depth of the human soul, in terms of the cynicism, alienation and dissolutionment that so existed in people’s consciences, but unspoken of. They both use realism, space and the human body as the theatre of expression of human emotions (John 2).

There was the use of realism in the expression of human emotions; a solitary path.

In both paintings, the painters use their own reality or schemata of their lives’ background in making the paintings. In painting A, Edvard Munch was painting the screaming person while relating to his own reality. He was in a period where he was in fear and terrified (John 2). This enabled him to capture these emotions on canvas. The same instance applies in painting B. Francis Bacon’s own schemata relates to th...

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...ned the use of colors and pigment to bring harmony in the paintings. Instead, the persons including the backgrounds appear as distorted, all in the effort to exaggerate the emotions being depicted. It can thus be concluded that both paintings reflect the abstract nature of the 20th Century, and how people express themselves in dynamism, strengthening the aspect of expressionism and embracing reality.

Work Cited

Carl, Zigrosser.The Expressionists: A Survey of Their Graphic Art. New York, NY: G.Braziller, 2010(Revised).

Jennifer, Dyer. Paint & Suffering: Series and Community in Francis Bacon’s Paintings.2003.Web.Retrieved March 17, 2012.

John, A.Spreyrer.Peri-Natal Themes of Death and Dying In the Art of Edvard Munch.2000.Web.Retrieved March 17, 2012.

Potter, P.Edvard Munch (1863-1944).Self-Portrait After the Spanish Flu (1919-20).Atlanta, Georgia: CDC.2003.

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