Self-Portrait in Hell 1903

Edvard Munch made this self-portrait in oil on canvas, and it lives at the Munch Museum in Oslo. The way Munch slaps on paint, raw and immediate, it’s like the canvas is catching a feeling as it’s happening. Look at the feverish reds and oranges licking the background; it’s hellish, yeah, but it's also just pure, unfiltered sensation. The paint is pretty thin but the brushstrokes are definite, urgent. There’s this ghostly figure looming behind him, right? Is it a shadow? Is it another version of himself? It reminds me of the way Francis Bacon would torque and twist the human form to get at something deeper, darker. I think both Bacon and Munch see painting as a way to wrestle with the messiness of existence. It's an ongoing conversation about how to capture the uncapturable.