More than just The Scream

My last day in Madrid turned out to be grey and drizzly. So, I made the most of it by heading to the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, a museum that opened in 1992. There was a fabulous temporary exhibit with 80 paintings by Edvard Munch. Before today I didn't know much of his work except for his widely popular painting The Scream. Turns out that there is a lot to like by Munch. 

This show reviews a wide spectrum of emotional archetypes through which Munch reveals various existential obsessions such as love, desire, jealousy, angst and death, and states of mind including melancholy, passion and submission. Each room was devoted to one of these emotions or states and included early works as well as late versions of the same topic. I loved having an exhibit arranged by emotional states. Such an interesting way to think about and focus on the meaning of his paintings. Most of the works had more than one figure in them and the emotions were portrayed both individually and in the relationships between them. 

Each room had the emotion written on the wall followed by a quote from Munch. I wish I had been allowed to take photos of both the work and the quotes. One quote was about the fickleness of emotions and how love and passion and desire can move to jealousy and rage and despair. I really liked the way he used color and the composition of his paintings. I'm so glad I decided to go to this museum today!

The permanent exhibit here is wonderful too, maybe my favorite in Spain. It ranges from late 13th C to the 1980 in scope.  Lots of Dutch and Italian works. I especially enjoyed seeing the Impressionist, Post Impressionist and German Impressionist sections as well as the Cubism, abstract art, Surrealism and Pop Art. I liked finding new paintings that I hadn't seen before by artists that I admire.