The Wedding of the Bohemian 1925 - 1930

Edvard Munch made The Wedding of the Bohemian with oil on canvas, and you can see right away he’s not trying to hide the process. The marks are loose, exploratory, like he’s thinking out loud with the paint. Look at the way he’s used the raw canvas as a kind of ground, letting it breathe through the strokes of blues, greens, and oranges. The paint isn’t thick, it's more like a stain. See how the figures emerge from these washes of color? It's almost as if they’re dissolving back into the scene, a kind of half-formed memory. The table is represented by looping strokes, circles and dashes. It's as much about the act of painting as it is about depicting a wedding. I’m reminded of James Ensor, another master of emotional intensity, who also wasn’t afraid to let his process show. With Munch, like Ensor, you get the feeling he's inviting you to participate in the making, the thinking, the feeling.