There are only a few places in all of New York City that would be appropriate for the “Master Prints of Edvard Munch” exhibit to be shown.
The venerable and historically significant National Arts Club is one of them; with it’s hallowed halls and reverent (and well preserved) architecture. Imagining the works anywhere else is challenging, considering the traditional beauty of the space and the tranquility of the surrounding area, Gramercy Park. The show, “Edvard Munch – Master Prints,” is the fruit of a collaboration between the National Arts Club and John Szoke Gallery and is the second time the two have worked together.
This collection of Munch’s work is relatively diverse in medium and size, but consistent in subject matter, crediting two sources of inspiration: loss and love. First, Munch lost many family members in his early life, and his fascination (or struggle) with this loss is strongly apparent through the works. The Norwegian artist successfully visualizes the psychological struggle of loss, whether as a woodcut or charcoal drawing. His focus on dramatic shadows and brilliant light feels oddly familiar and real. Despite the deep, wide cuts in the woodcut of “The Old Fisherman,” the work still has the ability to capture the worry lines, the age, and the stress of the subject. The curiosity matches the tragedy in “Double Suicide,” which depicts (ostensibly) a couple- a pair of lovers- deceased in a bed… but as they wish, they are spending eternity together. It’s overt and powerful, and its impressionist style adds a degree of foolishness.
“Double Suicide” transitions the body of work from overt sadness to the embrace and beauty of love. That idea- embrace- is important in Munch’s work. The physicality of the embrace, or simply, the hug, is frequent and reoccurring. In separate instances: an embrace with a child, a lover, a wife, with death itself, the embrace of two hands praying. These all add an important cohesiveness to the entire collection of work. The love on display here is gorgeous and suitable. It’s dark and lonely in one way, but comfortable and singular in another.
Edvard Munch’s “Master Prints” is on display in the Grand Gallery from October 6 to October 25 at the National Arts Club (15 Gramercy Park South, New York, New York 10003), Visit www.nationalartsclub.com or call (212) 475-3424.
-Benjamin Schmidt
