The Scream
Munch's painting of a hairless figure clutching its face on a bridge under an orange sky — the universal image of modern anxiety.
Origin
Edvard Munch painted four versions between 1893 and 1910. He described the inspiration in his diary: walking with friends at sunset along a fjord, he felt 'an infinite scream passing through nature.' The screaming figure is not screaming itself — it's hearing the scream and trying to block its ears. The orange sky may reflect the eruption of Krakatoa six years earlier, which created vivid sunsets across Europe.
Modern usage
The face is literally the anxiety emoji (😱). The image is on T-shirts, inflatable Halloween costumes, the Home Alone poster, and a thousand reaction GIFs. 'Going full Scream' or 'I'm screaming' as internet vocabulary is downstream of the painting's image. Probably the most-memed serious painting in history.
In the wild
Opening Monday's inbox is a Scream painting.— common usage
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