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Edvard Munch: Symbols and Images

November 11, 1978 – March 4, 1979
East Building, Concourse (14,000 sq. ft.)

Edvard Munch, Two Women on the Shore (Frauen am Meeresufer), 1920s, color woodcut, Print Purchase Fund (Rosenwald Collection) and Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1978.15.5

This exhibition is no longer on view at the National Gallery.

Overview: 245 of Edvard Munch's paintings, prints, drawings, watercolors, and woodblocks, and an illustrated manuscript volume, The Tree of Knowledge, were borrowed from 20 sources.

Organization: A Norwegian committee of officials at the museums in Oslo and Bergen was assisted by Reinhold Heller, Gaillard Ravenel, and Andrew Robison. Heller was the exhibition curator. Earl A. Powell III and Ravenel were exhibition coordinators at the National Gallery. Ravenel and Mark Leithauser designed the exhibition and Gordon Anson designed the lighting. The Concourse level was converted into a series of 15 rooms.

Sponsor: The exhibition was supported by a grant from Mobil Oil Corporation and by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

Attendance: 271,000

Catalog: Edvard Munch: Symbols and Images. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1975.

Munch, Edvard
Norwegian, 1863 - 1944

Download a free PDF of the exhibition catalog (PDF 90.5MB)