Edvard Munch on Color, Line, and Form

Norwegian artist Edvard Munch was stylistically ahead of his time. He was a print-maker, a symbolist painter, and an influence in the development of German Expressionism, a style I feel especially drawn towards. I love the following quote, because emphasis on line and vibration or flow of those lines (for lack of better words) are elements I use in my work.

"By painting colors and lines and forms seen in quickened mood I was seeking to make this mood vibrate as a phonograph does. "

-Edvard Munch (1863 -1944)

I like the way he used color and line forms to define moods in his work. It's easy to call someone like French painter Henri Matisse (1869 - 1954) a forefather of modern art, but Munch played a prime and vital role in that development also. The self-portrait below is a prime example; you will be hard pressed to find a painting from 1895 with that much expressionistic color, texture, and overall mysterious feel.

Edvard Munch, Self Portrait with Cigarette, 1895