Do you remember the first time you saw the painting The Scream?
The painting was in the news recently for setting a record price for its sale. I remember the first time I saw it rather well. I was a teenager, though I am not sure of the exact age. I am guessing 14 to 16. I was at home looking at an article in the encyclopedia that some slick salesman convinced my mother that we needed. The article I found had a glossy page of black and white photos of famous paintings arranged in rows and columns. The Scream was one of them and it just jumped out at me. I do not remember any of the other pictures.
I do not have much artistic sensitivity, so I am thinking that there must be a lot of others who had a similar reaction. The painting is one of the best known. Can you remember the first time you saw it or are there any other works of art that affected you in a particularly strong way when you first saw them?
Observing members:
0
Composing members:
0
11 Answers
Starry Nights series or Monet’s water garden series got to me.
Just now. Had not seen it before. It’s cool, but doesn’t do any more than that for me. I guess different art strikes different folks, whether they’re artistically sensitive or not.
The first time I saw this was some other artist’s take on it on the Kill The Poor Dead Kennedy’s record.
I don’t remember the first time I saw it, but It has a place in my mind.
When my grandma died I was there just before and just after she died. I had been in the room with her, I went out for a bit and then when I returned she had just died. The nurse left the room so I could be alone with her. Her face reminded me of The Scream. Her eyes were mostly closed but not completely, but it was her mouth. It was open in that same way as in the painting. I don’t know how uncomfortable she was, or if she was in pain, but I suppose that she was gasping for breath and that is just how she stopped breathing.
It was a relief to see her at the funeral home after the mortician had fixed her up. I didn’t want that dying face to be the last image that I had of her.
So now when I see The Scream I think of that day with her.
The first time I saw The Scream and for many years afterwards, I always assumed the person in the image with mouth agape was the one doing the screaming… only like 2 years ago or so did I find out it was actually just some dude hearing the scream and being shocked.
Since then I’ve always considered it a piece that fails to communicate clearly.
I saw it at a retrospective of Munch’s work at a small gem of a museum (whose name I can’t recall) in Memphis, Tennessee.. It was the only painting by the artist with which I was familiar and I wasn’t particularly impressed with it. The retrospective taught me more about the artist and what a romantic he was (to my surprise). I much preferred his other works, of beautiful women. The Scream seemed more indicative of his frustrations and I appreciated it more than I had before I saw his body of works.
@ninjacolin , I was not aware of that. I am going to exercise my postmodernist right to interpret the painting the way that you initially did.
It puts me in mind of my mother’s initial reaction when I knocked over the xmas tree one year, twas an accident but she does like to over dramatise a touch.
I don’t remember how old I was, but it may have been one of the pieces we looked at in art history at school, which would have made me 16 at the time. I disliked it immensely when I first saw it, and still do.
The Pre-Raphaelite movement is much more my thing.
Both a version of ‘The Scream’ (Munch painted 4) and the Madonna were stolen in 2004 from the Munch Museum in Oslo and recovered 2 years later. I remember that day. We were all shocked. Just two weeks before, I had visited that very same museum. I don’t care for Munch’s work. It is depressing, for the most part.
I think Van Goghs work is steeped in my earlier memories. Bright colours and slightly messy brushstrokes with thick paint. Love it.
Answer this question 
Composing members:
0
