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December 12, 2017 3 Comments

The Frieze of Life by Edvard Munch: Exploring Our Human Experience

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Inside: Explore these powerful artworks in the series by Edvard Munch Frieze of Life and then download the lesson to use in your classroom!

Edvard Munch’s The Scream is one of the most captivating and powerful artworks ever produced. But did you know that it is part of a larger series of artworks? Beginning in the 1890s, Munch created a stunning series of paintings called The Frieze of Life. The paintings produced during this time of his life are some of his most dramatic and most well-known.

The Frieze of Life Edvard Munch

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Get the Full Lesson!

This Lesson is in The Curated Connections Library!

Find the full lesson from this post along with hundreds of other art teaching resources and trainings in the Curated Connections Library. Click here for more information about how to join or enter your email below for a free SPARKworks lesson from the membership!

What is a Frieze?

As an art teacher, you may already recognize the word frieze. Either you vaguely remember it from college or you just weirdly have the parts of a Greek temple memorized like I do (why, oh why, do I just know what a metope is?).

A frieze “a broad horizontal band of sculpted or painted decoration, especially on a wall near the ceiling.” (source: Google dictionary)

Greek Temple Example of Frieze

Ancient Greek temples had a frieze layer on the entablature (the top part of the temple that sits on the columns). Often on the frieze, the Greeks and Romans would alternate between metopes and triglyphs. The triglyph is the block with the three parallel lines in this picture, and the metope is the relief sculpture between.

Frieze with Triglyph and Metope Photo Credit MichaelMaggs

I love how Munch referenced the history of art with The Frieze of Life.

The Life of Edvard Munch

Edvard Munch Self-Portrait with Skeleton Arm
Edvard Munch, Self-Portrait with Skeleton Arm, 1895

Munch’s life included much tragedy and illness. His mother and sister both passed of tuberculosis while he was a child, and both he and a different sister spent time in mental health facilities. He once proclaimed “I inherited two of mankind’s most frightful enemies—the heritage of consumption and insanity.” (Source)

Edvard Munch Frieze of Life, The Voice Summer Night, 1896
Edvard Munch, The Voice, Summer Night, 1896

His father’s strict piety caused turmoil in his life. He once said of his father, “My father was temperamentally nervous and obsessively religious—to the point of psychoneurosis. From him I inherited the seeds of madness. The angels of fear, sorrow, and death stood by my side since the day I was born.” (Source) His father did however provide him a great knowledge and education in history and literature.

Edvard Munch Frieze of Life, Street Lafayette, 1891
Edvard Munch, Street Lafayette, 1891

Munch started out as an Impressionist style painter but soon found his voice and developed his own style.

Edvard Munch Frieze of Life

Munch did do his own version of Impressionism, but instead of capturing the essence of light and atmosphere, he captured “impressions of the life of the soul.” (Source)

The paintings in this series focused on capturing foundational human emotions and experiences: jealousy, love, anxiety, despair, isolation, separation, etc. From positive emotions to negative, he expresses emotions that people connect and resonate with.

Edvard Munch Frieze of Life, Anxiety, 1894
Edvard Munch, Anxiety, 1894

Look at Anxiety. I know I have been that woman many times in my life. It is chilling.

Check out more of Edvard Munch Frieze of Life in the below slideshow.

[slideshow_deploy id=’15889′]

→ While you are studying The Frieze of Life, check out my earlier post on The Scream by Edvard Munch art lesson. That post also has a free printable to analyze the elements and principles of art in The Scream!

Edvard Munch, The Scream, 1893
Edvard Munch, The Scream, 1893

Munch Frieze of Life Art Project

After analyzing Munch’s art through the elements and principles of art and studying The Frieze of Life paintings, have students create their own Frieze of Life style paintings.

Either have students draw an emotion (from the printable in the lesson) or come up with their own emotion they want to portray, and invite them to use the elements and principles to create a portrayal of that emotion. Encourage them to not illustrate the emotion but rather express the impression of that emotion as Munch did!

If you liked this post on Edvard Munch Frieze of Life, check out these others!

  • The Scream by Edvard Munch Art Lesson and visual analysis worksheet
  • The Ultimate List of Color in Art: Examples and Definitions
  • The Art of Käthe Kollwitz
  • How to Teach Abstract Art Lesson
  • Art, Horror, and The Sublime: Pablo Picasso’s Guernica
  • 8 Powerful Modern Mexican Artworks
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Filed Under: Art and Artists
Tagged With: edvard munch

 

You May Also Enjoy These Posts:

The Ultimate Collection of Color in Art: Examples and DefinitionsRhythm in Art: The Ultimate List of Rhythm in Art ExamplesEdvard Munch Visual Analysis The Scream-to postVisual Analysis Lesson for Edvard Munch’s The Scream

Reader Interactions

3 Comments

  1. Joanne

    January 28, 2018 at 9:21 am

    Lovely resources to look at. thank you

    Reply to this comment
    • Cindy Ingram

      February 1, 2018 at 9:05 am

      You’re welcome!

      Reply to this comment
  2. John

    February 11, 2020 at 7:37 pm

    Great content and post! I’m doing a video about Munch. This is really helpfull. Nice post, thank you very “munch” 😉

    Reply to this comment

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