"Self-Portrait between the Clock and the Bed", 1940–43, by Edvard Munch; Munch Museum (Art © Jasper Johns/Licensed by Vaga, New York, NY)
At a crossroads in the middle of his career, Jasper Johns found his way forward in part by looking to the work of Norwegian expressionist painter Edvard Munch. Johns mined Munch’s work in the late 1970s and early 1980s as he moved away from abstract painting toward a more open expression of love, sex, loss, and death.
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts’ exhibition Jasper Johns and Edvard Munch: Love, Loss, and the Cycle of Life assembles combinations of more than 120 paintings, drawings, and prints to trace the route Johns traveled in relation to Munch’s work. A guided tour of the exhibit is the centerpiece of a day that also includes time to enjoy the museum’s extensive holdings—including the dazzling Faberge collection—and lunch in Marble Hall.
Art historian Ursula Rehn Wolfman is the tour leader.
World Art History Certificate elective: Earn 1/2 credit
