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拍品专文
‘When we stood facing each other and your eyes looked into my eyes then I felt as if invisible threads led from your eyes into my eyes and tied our hearts together’ (Edvard Munch, quoted in: B. Torjusen, Words and images of Edvard Munch, London, 1989, p. 78).
Set in the coastal town of Åsgårdstrand, Attraction I (1896) is a haunting expression of emotional entanglement. Frequently returning to the study of intense moods and emotions, ‘attraction’ was a recurring motif throughout Munch's oeuvre that he explored across different media. The present work holds clear compositional parallels with Munch’s painting Eye in Eye (1899-1900) and follows an etched version of this subject produced in the previous year. Executed here with tusche, crayon and fine incisions within the densely inked areas, Attraction I demonstrates the artist’s experimental approach to the medium, as well as his rapid mastery of the tonal qualities of lithography, having only embarked upon printmaking in the autumn of 1894.
The rocky shoreline of the fjord – which would provide the setting for many of Munch’s most emotive works – is simplified here through an austere pictorial language that exploits the expressive potential of this planographic printing technique. Sea and sky dissolve into blended tones of black, while the profiles of two lovers are discernible only through delicate white lines cut into the deep black planes of the foreground, so very effective in this rich, dark impression. By scraping away the ink, Munch accentuates the woman’s flowing hair which envelops her lover, visually binding the figures together and symbolising their emotional connection and sexual desire. Harnessing the potential of lithography through the interplay of these tonal gradations and textures, Munch powerfully distils the complex emotions that underpin the beginnings of human relationships. The present sheet was part of the artist's estate, which he had bequeathed to the City of Oslo. It thus part of the collection of the newly established Munchmuseet, where it was held until 1968, when the museum decided to part with some duplicate impressions from their rich holdings.
Set in the coastal town of Åsgårdstrand, Attraction I (1896) is a haunting expression of emotional entanglement. Frequently returning to the study of intense moods and emotions, ‘attraction’ was a recurring motif throughout Munch's oeuvre that he explored across different media. The present work holds clear compositional parallels with Munch’s painting Eye in Eye (1899-1900) and follows an etched version of this subject produced in the previous year. Executed here with tusche, crayon and fine incisions within the densely inked areas, Attraction I demonstrates the artist’s experimental approach to the medium, as well as his rapid mastery of the tonal qualities of lithography, having only embarked upon printmaking in the autumn of 1894.
The rocky shoreline of the fjord – which would provide the setting for many of Munch’s most emotive works – is simplified here through an austere pictorial language that exploits the expressive potential of this planographic printing technique. Sea and sky dissolve into blended tones of black, while the profiles of two lovers are discernible only through delicate white lines cut into the deep black planes of the foreground, so very effective in this rich, dark impression. By scraping away the ink, Munch accentuates the woman’s flowing hair which envelops her lover, visually binding the figures together and symbolising their emotional connection and sexual desire. Harnessing the potential of lithography through the interplay of these tonal gradations and textures, Munch powerfully distils the complex emotions that underpin the beginnings of human relationships. The present sheet was part of the artist's estate, which he had bequeathed to the City of Oslo. It thus part of the collection of the newly established Munchmuseet, where it was held until 1968, when the museum decided to part with some duplicate impressions from their rich holdings.