Tate Modern’s Munch Exhibition Investigates Eyesight

Last month, the iconic and world-famous 1893 painting ‘The Scream’ by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (1863-1944) was sold by Sotheby’s in New York for almost £88million. The haunting and chilling image shows a man in despair below a turbulent red sky.

Though it has remained popular and instantly recognisable since it was unveiled over a century ago, a new exhibition of Munch’s work at London’s Tate Modern, will explore the inspiration and inner meanings behind the ‘The Scream’ and his other works.
 Munch had a primal fear of losing his sight

Art historians believe that Munch was deeply terrified of losing his sight, a fear that was best articulated in ‘The Scream’ which perhaps showed what Munch imagined blindness to be like; a deathly-looking man lost and alone, screaming in terror in a chilling and morbid world.

In 1930 at the age of 66, Munch’s worst fears were realised as he contracted an intraocular haemorrhage in his right eye. The blood in his eye congealed, leading to shapes, spots and smudges superimposed on to everything he saw.

Michael Marmor, a professor of ophthalmology of Stanford University School of Medicine claims that the abstract watercolours Munch painted while suffering from the disease reveal how he was suffering. Marmor believes that Munch was deeply afraid of what the haemorrhage did to his sight. He drew self-portraits using a skull for the face and picturing the arms held up to the cheeks just as in his signature piece ‘The Scream.’

Eye haemorrhage shaped Munch’s world

The effects of the coagulated blood in Munch's eye created bird-like shapes and concentric circles, often in vivid colours in front of his eyes. Marmor suggested it was possible that the circles represented a view through his haemorrhage as he looked towards a light or the sun.

Other works show the presence of a dense blind spot near the centre of his vision. Sometimes Munch represented it as a simple opaque shape, but in one nightmarish watercolour it is depicted as a skull covering the foot of Munch’s bed with himself portrayed with a hand covering his left eye. In another dream-like drawing, a nude figure is hidden partially by the blind spot, possibly expressing Munch's frustration at not being able to fully see the subject of his work properly.

Rest and relaxation helped to restore Munch’s sight

Munch became so fearful of the effects that his loss of sight would have on his paintings, that he briefly turned to photography in order to continue working. However an ophthalmologist in Norway met with Munch and diagnosed that the haemorrhage was caused by over-exertion. He prescribed complete rest and soon Munch began to regain his fully eyesight and in 1931 was able to continue painting.
Ingebjørg Ydstie, of the Munch Museum in Oslo, concluded that the watercolours Munch completed during this period of his life represents a personal document of what he experienced and how it made him feel. The Munch exhibition opens at London’s Tate Modern on June 28.