Cher’s Famous Art

21 March 2020

Famous Art for the Pandemic

Update 03 July 2025: This post was initially published during the 2020/2021 COVID pandemic. As an art history professor, world traveler and lover of great art and art museums, I set out to connect famous art with what was going on in the world around us. First posted on Face Book, it moved into the creation of this website. Click here for additional postings on a Year in the Life of the Pandemic.

Written on March 21, 2020, this is the second post I wrote for this blog as the pandemic hit. It serves as a reminder of what we experienced – and hope to never experience again. The whole world hit the PAUSE button as we were hit with the COVID-19 Corona Virus pandemic.

“The Scream”

by Edvard Munch, 1893-1920 (4 versions) Norwegian Expressionist

COVID & The Voiceless Scream

The iconic, haunting face in this painting seems very appropriate for the whole world right now! The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the world full force, shutting down schools, churches, restaurants—even whole countries! While grounded in the real world, the subject departs from visual reality with a voiceless scream. Sound familiar?!

There are many, many interpretations of this painting, each valid. But for today, in this time and place, my computer screen is silent, but the posts on our Face book posts literally scream!

5 Versions

Munch painted 4 variations of this scene (actually 5 if you count a lithograph). I saw this one on a trip to Oslo Norway in 2004 (National Museum). Interestingly, soon after, it was stolen! (But recovered, fortunately) The others are in the Munch Museum, Oslo.

The 5 include the most famous one, in the National Museum: tempera on cardboard (1893); and the others in the Munch Museum: crayon on cardboard (1893), pastel on cardboard (1895), lithograph (1895) and tempera on board (1910). The pastel was auctioned at Sotheby’s in 1212 for £ 74 million.

Oslo Museums

A trip to Oslo is not complete without seeing The Scream (all variations) in person!
– National Museum in Oslo, Norway – nasjonalmusee.no/en
– Munch Museum, Oslo, Norway – munchmuseet.no/en