The German city of Chemnitz is showcasing a major exhibition dedicated to Norwegian artist Edvard Munch, famous for his iconic painting "The Scream." As part of its year as European Capital of Culture 2025, Chemnitz Art Collections has opened "Fear," an exhibition that explores Munch's profound influence on modern art and examines themes that remain strikingly relevant today.
The exhibition features nearly 100 works by Munch himself, alongside pieces by renowned artists including Andy Warhol, Neo Rauch, Georg Baselitz, and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. Florence Thurmes, Director General of Chemnitz Art Collections, emphasized that Munch's themes of fear, loneliness, and love are universal and continue to make his work relevant today. "In many ways, he broke new ground both technically and thematically, and was formative for subsequent generations of artists," she noted.
One of the exhibition's highlights is the dialogue created between Munch's original works and contemporary interpretations. Munch's world-famous "Scream" motif is displayed as a 1895 lithograph, placed in conversation with Andy Warhol's 1984 tribute "The Scream (After Munch)." Warhol had redrawn the lithograph and enhanced it with color fields in black, yellow, green, pink, and blue. The exhibition also features artist Osmar Osten's unique interpretation of "The Scream," demonstrating the enduring influence of Munch's work across generations.
Throughout the exhibition, Munch's works are consistently paired with pieces by other artists to create meaningful dialogues. His self-portrait, showing him against a black background with a skeletal arm in the foreground as a symbol of mortality, hangs beside a video work by Marina Abramović. In her piece, she appears with a golden mask that gradually falls away, creating a powerful commentary on time and human fragility.
A particularly significant moment for the exhibition is the return of Munch's painting "Two People. The Lonely Ones" to Chemnitz after nearly 90 years. The work, which depicts a woman and man looking out to sea from a beach, was featured on a poster for a 1929 retrospective in the city. However, it had to be sold again in 1937 under the Nazi regime. Thurmes highlighted that this marks the first time the painting has been seen in Germany and Chemnitz in almost nine decades.
The exhibition also pays tribute to Munch's personal connection to Chemnitz. The Norwegian artist visited the Saxon city for several weeks in 1905 at the invitation of a textile entrepreneur. During this stay, he created several paintings and drawings, two of which are featured in the current exhibition. The city had honored Munch with exhibitions during his lifetime, reflecting the long-standing appreciation for his work in the region.
Running from August 10 to November 2 at the Art Collections on Theaterplatz, the "Fear" exhibition is considered one of the highlights of Chemnitz's European Capital of Culture program. The city shares this prestigious designation with Nova Gorica, Slovenia, located on the border with Italy. Alongside the main exhibition, a rich program of complementary events has been organized, including film screenings, lectures, readings, guided tours, and workshops. One particularly intriguing workshop is titled "Screaming - But Properly!" offering visitors a unique way to engage with Munch's most famous work.
The exhibition demonstrates how Munch's exploration of fundamental human emotions - fear, loneliness, illness, love, and death - continues to resonate with contemporary audiences. By placing his works in dialogue with modern and contemporary artists, the Chemnitz exhibition reveals the Norwegian master's lasting impact on the art world and his role as a crucial pioneer of modernism.
