Between the Clock and the Bed by Edvard Munch

A new exhibition written up in The Guardian Newspaper here showcases some of the highlights of the incredible expressionist artist Edvard Munch, and to be exhibited at The Metropolitan Museum between November 15 2017 through February 4 2018.

The Munch painting and self-portrait that caught our attention was the self-portrait painting showing Edvard Munch standing between his bed and his grandfather clock. The Exhibit is billed as positioning Edvard Munch as more than being known for his epinimous affiliation with The Scream, and as a revolutionary whose personal life and tragedies shaped his work. The self-portrait of Munch Between The Clock and The Bed was painted not long before his death in 1944.

Additional works by Munch are highlighted including The Sick Child (1907), with themes that overwhelmed Munch’s imagination in his childhood being reflected, and was painted when he was a much younger artist. In his much self-portrait as a much younger man in Self-Portrait with Burning Cigarette (1895), Munch pictures himself as a sophisticated and handsome if not a bit sinister individual. His Sick Mood at Sunset, Despair painting from 1892 mostly to this writer brings the same thematic landscape and sky from Munch’s The Scream masterpiece.

The artist’s Self-Portrait in Hell (1903) of him naked and in the shadows shows Munch was clearly not at a happy high point of his life when he painted this intriguing work. Munch’s Weeping Nude woman suggests some emotions and likely desires perhaps relating to his personal life. Meanwhile, The Artist and his Model from around 1920 suggest he is more focused on painting himself and about his life than those of others, and suggests to some that he may feel, based on his depiction of himself and his female model, that he may feel his better days are behind him. Hard to know, but as are all of his works, highly intriguing. There is a sense of solitude, as the model has especially little shape or detail.

Munch’s Starry Night, while inescapably first being compared and contrasted with the work by Vincent Van Gough, shows the artist painting with more realism than is typical of many of his works. He succeeds in making the viewer feel what one what feel viewing this same landscape in person. The work The Dance of Life seems to suggest the reality of the unknown and the unpredictable and winding paths when seeking relationships and romance. It’s a beautiful if not slightly eerie work of art.

The Night Wanderer painting from about 1924 shows Edvard Munch without and pretense and perhaps during a period when he felt alone in his life, or at least during that night. His Self-Portrait with Bottles from about 1928 suggests that he perhaps not only enjoyed his liquor but that is also became a demon for him to battle in life.

Rarely does an artist share so much about oneself so easily and crisply as Munch. While we always think first of The Scream Munch, as clock connoisseurs and grandfather clock lovers in particular, we know a close second of Munch’s work that comes to mind will be Between the (Grandfather) Clock and The Bed.

Special thanks to the photographer Ove Kvavik for his photo of Munch’s Between the Clock and The Bed that appears in The Guardian Story reference-linked above and pictured below.