"One of the finest art history biographies on the book shelves"
Knausgaard's latest work explores the art of fellow Norwegian icon Edvard Munch but don't expect this to be straight forward art history, with Knausgaard you get more bang for your buck.
Part celebration of a genius painter, part biography and part analysis of the myth around the man behind paintings such as 'The Scream', Knausgaard's book explores Munch from a social and cultural aspect that goes far beyond the paintings themselves.
The starting point is that every Norwegian is familiar with Munch's work from their childhood such is his position at the heart of Norwegian National identity. Like Hans Christian Andersen to the Danes and Abba to the Swedish, Edvard Munch is popular cultural hero personified. But what does it mean that a man prone to loneliness, melancholy and tragedy has come to represent a Nation?
It is Knausgaard's personal reflections as he prepares to curate his own exhibition for the Munch Museet that delivers the greatest insight. His own Munchian anxiety, self-doubt and rumination comes from the same place as the My Struggle series that made Knausgaard shorthand for an original form of autobiographical fiction.
Part celebration of a genius painter, part biography and part analysis of the myth around the man behind paintings such as 'The Scream', Knausgaard's book explores Munch from a social and cultural aspect that goes far beyond the paintings themselves.
The starting point is that every Norwegian is familiar with Munch's work from their childhood such is his position at the heart of Norwegian National identity. Like Hans Christian Andersen to the Danes and Abba to the Swedish, Edvard Munch is popular cultural hero personified. But what does it mean that a man prone to loneliness, melancholy and tragedy has come to represent a Nation?
It is Knausgaard's personal reflections as he prepares to curate his own exhibition for the Munch Museet that delivers the greatest insight. His own Munchian anxiety, self-doubt and rumination comes from the same place as the My Struggle series that made Knausgaard shorthand for an original form of autobiographical fiction.
One of the finest art history biographies on the book shelves and the perfect accompaniment to the Munch Museet's current show Exit. 5
So Much Longing in so Little Space: The Art of Edvard Munch by Karl Ove Knausgaard and translated by Ingvild Burkey, published by Harvill Secker 256 pages
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