He was a man surrounded by death and pain, the darkest emotions and the deepest sorrows. When he died in the winter of 1944, he left more than 20,000 pieces of his work to the city of Oslo, the place where he was born. Best known for the hauntingly beautiful painting of him, “The Scream,” Edvard Munch was a man who probably had a lot to scream about in his own life, among which he was suspected of having bipolar disorder.
Once called “manic depression” (a term now considered obsolete), this brutal psychological condition manifests itself primarily through intense mood swings, severe depression, and changes in energy levels. These changes can disappear as quickly as they appear, giving rise to the term “bipolar,” literally opposite poles on the emotional spectrum. So far, the exact cause of why bipolarism occurs is unknown, and even less was understood about it during Munch’s lifetime. A person with this condition often goes through cycles or periods where they experience abnormally large swings and changes in their mood, energy levels, and depression. Some in the medical field feel that traumatic events and excess stress, especially during a patient’s youth, can greatly increase the risk of developing bipolar disorder, either at the time of the trauma or in the years afterward .
In the first years of his life after his birth in 1863, Munch watched his parents, a sister, and a brother die. As the years passed, other brothers and close relatives passed away, and another sister was diagnosed with mental illness. With so much death and disease running through his young mind, it’s almost too easy to see how and why this Norwegian artist would go on to create art that was less about the somewhat light-hearted impressionism of the time and more about capturing the essence. of emotions and moods. Filled with anguish and perhaps a sense of loneliness, Edvard decided to enroll in art school in 1881. With his life in tow, Munch began traveling between Paris and Norway (and later Germany), studying the great artists and movements artistic of the time.
While not entirely macabre for the most part, in general, Munch’s work was a far cry from the flower gardens and ballet dancers that leading Impressionist artists were painting in droves at the time. Instead, Munch wanted to convey more than just a scene; he wanted his paintings to be full of emotion, energy, deeper meaning and complexity. However, even with that in mind, his art style would change several times (a theme that is also noticeable in other artists such as Picasso) as he dabbled in Impressionism, Synthetism, and other genres that were popular at the time. Borrowing techniques here and inventing others there, Edvard would become a pillar in the creation of the German expressionist movement. In Expressionism, Munch found a way to look beyond the perfectionism of the Realists and Impressionists and clearly capture emotion on canvas, wood, or any of the many mediums he chose to work with. Just as Edvard Munch’s work would take on a more optimistic aura in his later years, this talented artist’s moods and emotions changed drastically throughout his life, leading to the suspicion that he suffered from bipolar disorder.
Munch is not the only artist known or believed to have suffered from this condition; in fact, some researchers tend to think that he can generate deep forms of varied creativity. Famous names from Hans Christian Andersen to Virginia Woolf, from Napoleon to Marilyn Monroe are just a few of the stars, icons and history makers who may have struggled with this psychological condition. Now, just like in Munch’s lifetime, there is no fail-safe treatment for bipolar disorder. With his memories of him as inspiration and his moods as his medium, there may be little more to do than turn to art for Munch to use his inner earthquakes of feeling, energy, and depression to help him deal with her own bipolar disorder. Indeed, Edvard Munch turned melancholy and mania into a timeless art and gave the world an incredible collection of creative and moving works.