KBS 1TV 'Issue Pick with Teacher' Professor Lee Mi-kyung's
A deep understanding of Munch's life and works
A Munch guide that shines with kind and warm storytelling!

Edvard Munch (1863–1944), considered one of the most influential painters on modern art at the turn of the century.
This year marks the 80th anniversary of Munch's death.
"Munch's Starry Night" invites us into the life of Munch, the master of expressionism, whom we never knew about.


The author of this book, Professor Lee Mi-kyung (Yonsei University), is a Munch expert who served as exhibition advisor for the special retrospective exhibition “Edvard Munch: Beyond the Scream” currently being held at the Seoul Arts Center.
Prior to the publication of the book, the author spoke about the life, death, and art of Edvard Munch, who overcame the pain and anxiety that had plagued him his entire life and sublimated the darkness of the Scream into a brilliant sun, on KBS 1TV's [Issue Pick with Teacher] (June 30, 2024) under the theme, "The Brilliant Scream - Munch's Instruction Manual for Life."


The author spared no effort in understanding Munch's life and work by searching for and reading the diaries, notes, sketches, and letters left behind by the record-keeping fanatic Munch.
As a result, 『Munch's Starry Night』 vividly depicts every moment of his life, including his tragic childhood, his relationships with various artists who had a great influence on his early art, his love affair with three women marred by infidelity, unrequited love, and stalking, and his lifelong struggles with mental illnesses such as depression, claustrophobia, alcoholism, and insomnia, as if we were meeting him in 19th-century Oslo, Paris, and Germany.


It is often said that to understand a painting, you must know the artist's life.
This is especially true of Munch's work.
For example, to fully understand "Dance of Life," one must know about the seaside dance festival Munch experienced as a child, his painful memories of his first love, Millie, and the accidental pistol discharge by Toula, who was stalking him.
Munch created this work by complexly connecting several memories.
This is why 『Munch's Starry Night』 is a must-read before visiting the exhibition 『Edvard Munch: Beyond the Scream』.
Through this book, readers will gain new perspectives on Munch's work.

Munch felt a maternal affection for his caring older sister Sophie, who took the place of his mother, whom he lost when he was five years old.
His sister's death came as a tremendous shock to Munch as he was entering puberty.
At the age of fourteen, Munch's emotions and feelings became increasingly unstable.
He was gripped by the fear that he could die at any moment, and was consumed by fear, anxiety, and guilt.

The young Munch blamed himself for infecting Sophie with his illness and felt intense guilt that his sister had died in his place.
This burden on the mind was born as “Sick Child” nine years later.
Munch never recovered from the psychological shock of losing his older sister, Sophie, on whom he had relied.
--- p.21

A look into Munch's tragic family history reveals a series of illnesses, deaths, and madness.
But Munch did not give in to this.
He chose to face the illness, death, and madness that had followed him throughout his life head-on, rather than covering it up or ignoring it.
Looking at Munch's diary, we can see that he accepted this suffering as a part of his life.

My suffering is part of myself and my art.
Pain is one with me, so if it is destroyed, both I and art will be destroyed.
―MM T 2748, Sketchbook, 1927–1934 (2024-6-14)

As Munch recorded, his art was a continuation of suffering.
And Munch's life, which did not turn away from pain, was a solution to pain and a user manual for life.
The greatness of Munch's art lies in the fact that he accepted suffering as part of his life and sublimated it into art.
--- p.65~66

Munch painted full-length portraits of those who supported him, like Thies, and placed them in his outdoor studio like a guard of honor.
Those full-length portraits stayed with Munch until the moment of his death.
The portraits were exposed to heavy rain, wind, and snow in an outdoor studio, and the marks of these exposures remain on the canvas.
They also buried the droppings of all kinds of animals, including birds, dogs, and horses.
The portrait of Tiss was no exception.
The snow had piled up after the rain, and the melted stains remained.

Someone once asked Munch why he worked so hard on his works.
Munch said that layers of time are accumulated on the canvas.
The full-length portraits of his friends bear the marks of time spent with Munch.
--- p.110

Munch expressed the heartbreaking pain he felt after parting with Millie in “The Parting.”
Millie, dressed in white, walks towards the beach, feeling the sea breeze.
Millie's hair fluttered in the wind, wrapped around Munch's neck, and flowed down close to his heart.
Unable to catch Millie as she leaves, Munch clutches her heart as if it were in pain.
Millie Munch's first love was his heart.
Munch clearly felt from his own experience that a person's heart hurts when they break up.


Before painting “The Parting,” Munch visited a slaughterhouse to observe the slaughtering process of a cow in order to see the torn heart firsthand.
A large bull yowled as it fell into the hands of a ruthless slaughterer.
The slaughterman mercilessly stabbed the bull's heart with a dagger.
After a while, the cow's heart also stopped beating.
Like a merciless butcher, he cut out Munch's heart.
Munch's love also stopped.
--- p.125~126

There are three people in “Jealousy.”
Adam and Eve, and the mysterious man.
This work is a story of a love triangle between Munch, Dagny, and Przybyszewski.
Munch portrayed himself and Dagny as Adam and Eve, and Dagny's husband, Przybyszewski, as a jealous man, creating an absurd love triangle.


After Dagny got married, Munch could only watch her from afar.
There is another painting that represents his longing for Dagny.
In another painting, "Jealousy," Munch captured the indifferent appearance of Przybyshevsky.
The face of Przybyshevsky, painted large on the front, is painted green.
In German, 'green' means 'young, fledgling', so we can read Munch's mind mocking Przybyszewski for not recognizing Dagny's value.
--- p.137

One day, when I gathered all my works together, I felt that each painting was connected to each other.
When the pieces were placed side by side, they immediately became notes and blended together to form a symphony.
Then I started drawing friezes.
―MM N 46, Memo 1930–1934 (2024-6-10)

Munch believed that showing his works together rather than one by one would help the public understand his work better.
Munch thought of each work as a single musical note.
So, it was believed that many notes came together to form a great harmony and finally completed as a symphony.
《Frieze of Life》 is Munch's life symphony that was born in this way.
--- p.185~186

If you look closely at the bloody clouds in “The Scream,” you’ll find a small doodle that reads, “Only a madman could draw this.”
The graffiti was first discovered in 1904, eleven years after the work was created.
The museum suspected that the graffiti was created by a visitor who was dissatisfied with the artwork.
However, in 2021, the National Gallery of Norway concluded through handwriting analysis during the restoration process that this graffiti was done by Munch himself.

--- p.221