Edvard Munch: The Frieze of Life

'We should no longer paint interiors with men reading and women knitting. We should paint living people who breathe, feel, suffer and love.' This manifesto, written in 1889 by the twenty-six-year-old Norwegian artist Edvard Munch, was implemented by him throughout the 1890s in major works on the universal themes of love, anxiety and death, linked in a 'symphonic arrangement' he titled The Frieze of Life. Shot on location in Norway and from original paintings and graphic works, with commentary mainly drawn from Munch's own writings, this video explores the psychological and artistic origins and significance of some of the most arresting images in European art.