More than 100 works by Edvard Munch to be shown in Tokyo

Edvard Munch’s iconic paiting The Scream (1910?), will appear as part of a major Munch-exhibition at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum this fall.

– The Munch Museum very rarely lends the painted version of The Scream (1910?) to exhibitions, and we, of course, always make a thorough assessment before doing so. The painting is very fragile and must be treated with great caution, and this is the reason why it cannot be displayed too often. Before we open our new museum in Bjørvika, in Oslo’s harbour area, in June 2020, all the paintings will be fitted with new frames. The Scream has just recently been re-framed and the Japanese audience will be the very first to see the painting in its brand new frame, says Stein Olav Henrichsen, Director of the Munch Museum.

Around 100 works of art representing Edvard Munch’s entire career will give the Japanese audience an introduction to his oeuvre. It is expected that up to half a million people will visit the exhibition.

– We are experiencing great interest in Edvard Munch among the Japanese audience, including visitors to Norway. We think it’s very important to show Munch’s art to such an enthusiastic audience, and we look forward to sharing his great gift with the Japanese people, Henrichsen says.

One of the Munch Museum’s most important tasks is to share Edvard Munch’s gift. This also involves sharing it with the world. The exhibition in Tokyo is entitled Munch: A Retrospective and will be shown from 27 October 2018 until 20 January 2019. Among the highlights featured are Melancholy, Kiss, Vampire, Starry Night and, of course, The Scream. Japanese arts and crafts were very fashionable in Paris in the late 1800s. Munch, like other artists at the time, was greatly inspired by Japanese colour woodcuts.

– We would like to encourage the audience to take this opportunity to really study Edvard Munch’s motifs and techniques. The Scream is probably the most well-known motif to the audience, but this exhibition shows that Munch is so much more than that, Henrichsen sums up.

For more information and pictures:

Liv-Randi R. Holann, Communications Adviser.

E: liv-randi.holann@munchmuseet.no T: 0047 926 96 825