Edvard Munch Painting Exhibition

Edvard Munch Painting Exhibition poster.

The artefact in the photo is of a poster by Edvard Munch. It is interesting that an artist world famous for his paintings and illustrations also created his own graphics. The graphics of Edvard Munch is too well known, yet the fact that he designed the posters for his own exhibitions is not obvious.

The poster, “Man’s head in woman’s hair”, is a lithography from 1897. The size of the poster meters 31,5cm x 41,65cm, and pictures a man and a woman tangled together in the woman’s hair. The artefact is an exhibition poster that reads detailed information about Edvard Munch’s show set in Oslo at the time.

The poster reads:

“Edvard Munch
Painting showing
Dioramaet
Carl Joh. Street 41.
At 11 morning - 10 Afternoon
Enter: 50 øre (Norwegian currency)”

The text is written in a sans serif typeface with a light yellow, almost golden colour. The address and time are written in a dark brown, almost black colour. In contrast with the illustration and text the background holds a deep red colour covering the entire surface. The colour is dark and dominant and reminds of Munch’s use of the colour red, an almost blood-like colour.

The poster was made during The Art Nouveau movement, and we can see subtle traces of the movement in the poster. The golden typeface is written in all capital letters. A woman is in focus as the movements view the woman with long, wavy hair locks. At the time the poster was released, the artist was exploring his artistic talent in Paris and Berlin, where the Art Nouveau movement were in full use.