Edvard Munch: Trembling Earth

Edvard Munch: Trembling Earth is the first exhibition in the United States to reveal how Munch (Norwegian, 1863–1944) animated nature to convey meaning. Regarded primarily as a figure painter, Munch's most celebrated images are connected to themes of love, anxiety, longing, and death. Yet, a large portion of his works feature landscape. 

This ambitious presentation reveals a lesser-known aspect of Munch’s career and resonates profoundly with current anxieties around climate instability, considering his iconic art from a new perspective. The exhibition features approximately eighty paintings, prints, and drawings, organized thematically to reinforce how Munch used nature to express human psychology, celebrate farming practice and garden cultivation, and question the mysteries of the forest as Norway faced industrialization. In Munch’s depictions of geographical sites along the Oslo fjord and the Baltic coast, the artist investigated changes brought about by tourism and participated in health reform initiatives such as nude bathing. The exhibition also explores how Munch developed his own pantheistic and philosophical views of nature and used them to capture his surroundings.

Edvard Munch: Trembling Earth is co-organized by the Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts; the Museum Barberini, Potsdam, Germany; and Munchmuseet, Oslo, Norway, and curated by Jay A. Clarke, Rothman Family Curator, Art Institute of Chicago

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website

Image credit: Edvard Munch, The Sun, 1912.Oil on canvas, 48 7/16 × 69 1/2 in. (123 × 176.5 cm), Munchmuseet, Oslo, Norway. MM.M.00822