Bygningsarbeid 1919 - 1920

Edvard Munch made this watercolor painting, Bygningsarbeid, or Construction Work, with an interest in the rapidly modernizing world. In this loose wash of blues and grays, we see figures laboring, perhaps on a new building. Norway, like many European countries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, experienced rapid industrialization and urbanization. Munch was deeply concerned with the social and psychological effects of these changes, so he often depicted modern city life and the alienation that can come with it. Here, the faceless figures and muted colors suggest the anonymity and harshness of construction work. It is interesting to note that while the socialist art movement focused on depicting the heroic worker, Munch gives us more of an impressionistic, melancholic view of the worker in an urban setting. To understand this work better, one could research the urban development of Oslo during Munch's lifetime, as well as his relationship to contemporary social and political movements.