Priceless art

"The Scream" - 1893, Edvard Munch

This is "the scream" Hitler hated. Painted by Edvard Munch banned along with other artists by the Hitler regime as creators of degenerate art. (Of course any reminder of human pain must have been an ordeal for a dictator causing so much it). An almost laughable anecdote is that Hitler and his regime were art fanatics and had a big thing for earlier painters originating from the same country as Munch. Painters representative for the art style  national romanticism  (1840 - 1960) "Ref footnote"

"The Scream" has survived several burglary attempts and belongs in the same category as "Mona Lisa" and "Starry Night" as priceless paintings. It's absurd trying to figure out a value but the insurance of 200 mill dollars should give an idea.. Hypothetically,  if this painting were to be sold estimates are around 300 - 400 mill dollar.

The main reason for this blogpost is to open up new perspectives about Edvard Munch as an artist. It has for a long time been known that he wrote texts and passages in letters. But through research and release of new texts it is clear that he was a writer composing literary texts as a vital part of his life as an artist. The Munch Museum have a new exhibition this year from January 11th through April 25th called "Text & Image" Here is an introduction (in English) to the exhibition giving insight to Munch's  literary works : 

To visit the museums web page (in English): "Munch Museet"

Footnote: National romanticism is an art style celebrating cultural and national phenomenons and folklore, strongly influenced by philosophy, medieval and ancient Greek values, encouraging the use of what we in these days would call "special effects" (fantasy). So in regards to the last, Hitler enjoyed this art style based on his own conditions and adopted it as representative art for his regime. Ironically fantasy and dreams belongs to a free mind which clearly is on a frontal collision course with any suppressive totalitarian regime controlling peoples right to expressions. A couple of examples representative for the style:

"Bridal party in Hardanger" - 1848 Tiedemand & Gude

"American Progress" - ca.1872 John Gast