He may be acclaimed in the art world and coveted by thieves but Edvard Munch is starved of recognition in his native Norway, where squabbles have delayed a new museum worthy of his oeuvre.
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of the expressionist master, who painted the now iconic The Scream. But the anniversary is clouded by the city of Oslo’s inability to provide a proper setting for the art gems the painter left in his will.
Munch, who died in 1944, bequeathed an enormous collection to the Norwegian capital, including 1,100 paintings, 3,000 drawings and 18,000 etchings. But the current Munch Museum, constructed cheaply after World War II in a rather rundown Oslo neighborhood, does not do justice to the priceless trove.
Photo: EPA
照片:歐新社
While all agree on the need for a better museum, there are divisions over where to place it. Oslo’s city council agreed in 2008 to erect a building near the new, futuristic opera house on the shores of the Oslo fjord, but those plans were scrapped three years later when the populist right suddenly withdrew its support without a concrete explanation.
Failure to reach agreement could be interpreted as a Norwegian cold shoulder to the country’s most famous artist, in sharp contrast to his huge international appeal.
A million people recently visited a Munch exhibit that toured Paris, Frankfurt and London. One of four versions of The Scream Munch painted was sold last year at a New York auction for the record sum of US$119.9 million.
Photo: Reuters
照片:路透
By comparison, the Munch Museum in Oslo attracts around 126,000 visitors per year, even though it owns two versions of The Scream, perhaps the most famous expression of existential angst.
(AFP)
畫家愛德華‧孟克或許在藝術界贏得一致讚譽,並且是竊賊覬覦的目標,但在他的祖國挪威卻缺乏認可,政府各部門互踢皮球,更使得一座能與孟克全部畫作匹配的新博物館遲遲無法誕生。
今年是這位表現主義藝術大師誕生一百五十週年,孟克的作品《吶喊》現已成為眾所周知的名作。但此一週年紀念卻因為奧斯陸市無法提供能夠展出畫家在遺囑中留給該市藝術珍寶的適當場所而蒙上陰影。
孟克一九四四年過世時,把數量龐大的畫作遺贈給挪威首都奧斯陸市,包括一千一百幅繪畫、三千幅素描和一萬八千幅蝕刻畫。但現有的孟克博物館是在二戰後以便宜的材料蓋成,位在奧斯陸較破敗的社區,顯然不足以和這批無價的收藏品相稱。
雖然各方都同意有必要另找一個更妥善的博物館,但卻對博物館應位於何處意見分歧。奧斯陸市議會曾於二○○八年同意在奧斯陸峽灣岸邊、以未來主義風格建成的新歌劇院附近蓋一棟新博物館,但右派政府卻於三年後在未提供具體說明的情況下突然刪除這些計畫。
遲未達成協議恐被外界解讀為挪威人刻意怠慢本國最知名的藝術家,這與孟克在國際間的廣大吸引力形成強烈對比。
孟克畫作最近在巴黎、法蘭克福和倫敦巡迴展出,吸引了百萬人參觀。孟克所繪製四種版本《吶喊》作品之一,去年在紐約更拍賣出創紀錄的一億一千九百九十萬美元。
相形之下,奧斯陸孟克博物館雖藏有兩幅可能為描繪存在主義苦悶最著名作品《吶喊》,其每年的遊客約僅有十二萬六千人。
(法新社/翻譯:俞智敏)
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