It’s said that, in old age, the artist Edvard Munch (1863-1944) used to keep the radio on in his house in Oslo 24 hours a day. Often two or more radios played in each room, tuned to different stations – such a dread did he have of silence. This seems apt, given that Munch’s best-known painting by far is The Scream.
That one image has been so easily assimilated into mainstream popular culture – inspiring everything from a well-used emoji on your phone to Macaulay Culkin’s pose for the poster of Home Alone – that it has, to some extent, overshadowed the rest of the artist’s career.
