Meet Edvard Munch – A new book for young people about Norway’s only “art celebrity”

You are welcome to attend the book launch on 6 September at 1.00 pm at the Munch Museum. Two Year 7 classes from Bjølsen School will be present at the launch, and refreshments will be served to both students and the press.

Meet Edvard Munch – A new book for young people about Norway’s only “art celebrity”

Who was Edvard Munch? Where did he train to become an artist? What is an artist, actually? How did Munch work? And just how on earth did The Scream become one of the most famous paintings in the world?

The 150th anniversary of Edvard Munch’s birth is a good opportunity for our younger art enthusiasts to become better acquainted with Norway’s only “art celebrity” – and perhaps the answers to the questions above can be found in the new book “Meet Edvard Munch”.

Six authors have each contributed a chapter to the book. In Lasse Jacobsen’s chapter about how Edvard Munch became famous, we can read about both how others made Munch into a celebrity and why Munch himself wanted to be well-known:

“The only reason that Munch wanted to become a celebrity was because then many more people would become interested in his art. He wanted his paintings to be important and mean something to everyone who came to view them in galleries and museums. Munch wanted to show that people across the world have the same feelings, regardless of whether you are super celebrity or someone completely ordinary. You will experience falling in love, happiness, jealously and fear. You will lose somebody you love. Munch thought that maybe his paintings could help the people who viewed them – both with things that are easy and good, as well as things that are sad and difficult to live with.”

The book has been created through a collaboration between the National Museum for Art, Architecture and Design and the Munch Museum, and is published in five languages with support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Fritt Ord. The editorial team consisted of Hilde Dybvik (Oslo and Akershus University College), Lill Heidi Opsahl (Munch Museum) and Ellen Lerberg (National Museum).

Facts about “Meet Edvard Munch!”:
The book is divided into six thematic chapters and also contains an introduction and useful glossary at the back.

1)  Hilde Dybvik: To know or not know

2)  Lill Heidi Opsahl: Impulses

3)  Sivert Thue: Munch’s techniques

4)  Ellen Lerberg: People and animals around Edvard Munch

5)  Hilde Ødegaard: The “Frieze of Life” series

6)  Lasse Jacobsen: How Edvard Munch became famous

Target age group: 10–13 years
Scope: 109 pages, illustrated throughout
Languages: Norwegian, English, German, French, Italian 
Publisher: Skira editore, Milan
Price: NOK 198

Contact information:
Lill Heidi Opsahl, editor of the children’s book and manager of the communications department at the Munch Museum: lill.opsahl@munchmuseet.no, tel.: +47 95 90 76 87
Ellen Lerberg, editor of the children’s book and senior curator, communications, National Museum: ellen.lerberg@nasjonalmuseet.no, tel.: +47 21 98 22 35
Eva Engeset, press contact Munch 150: eva.engeset@munch150.no, tel.: +47 46 95 01 02