Three Faces 1902

Edvard Munch made this print, Three Faces, using brown ink on paper. It’s giving me the shivers! I can imagine Munch drawing and redrawing these faces, searching for a way to express something that words just couldn’t capture. Each line feels tentative, like a question asked in the dark. The texture of the paper shows through, adding to the sense of vulnerability. That central face, with its wide, staring eyes, is particularly haunting. I wonder if Munch was thinking about mortality, about the fragility of human existence when he made this? Or maybe it was a lover, a friend, or someone he saw on the street? The face on the right is almost unreadable, in sharp profile. Munch, like many artists, was in constant dialogue with those who came before him, wrestling with similar themes of love, loss, and the search for meaning. It’s all connected, this conversation across time.