Vigeland + Munch ― Behind the Myths

Vigeland + Munch is the first publication to thoroughly outline the parallels between two monumental figures of Norwegian art, painter and printmaker Edvard Munch (1863-1944) and sculptor Gustav Vigeland (1869-1943). With only a six year difference in age, the two lived and worked as contemporaries and shared strikingly similar trajectories as artists, embedding themselves within the same creative circles, both at home and abroad, and finding inspiration among the concurrent artistic movements of their time. Greatly revered in their native Norway, the two remain largely unexamined in tandem, though their shared depictions of psychologically fraught individuals, ambiguous love motifs, and complex interpersonal relationships make it clear that their parallel development was not simply a matter of common circumstances. Featuring some of the first publicly shown attempts at sculpture by Munch, as well as an array of thematically and formally linked works from throughout both of their remarkably productive careers, this book helps to clarify the exceedingly apparent connections between two giants of European art and their dramatically expressive renderings of the human condition.

Trine Otte Bak Nielsen is curator at the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway.