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Günther Förg is one of the youngest representatives of the expressive tradition in Echoes of The Scream. The work Untitled (1997-98) is a series of watercolours, in which the motifs are variations on Munch's late works or Förg's own sculptures. For example, quotations from Munch's paintings Marat's Death I and II and Self-Portrait Between the Clock and the Bed can be recognised, as can ornaments and details from several of his landscapes. Untitled consists of a total of 120 watercolours assembled in a large frieze. Echoes of The Scream shows a smaller selection of 40 of them. Although a large number of pictures are assembled to form one series, they do not directly have any common principle of form and content. Typical of Förg's motifs is a balance between the abstract and the figurative. He uses the serial structure to distract attention from individual works, instead focusing on the whole. At the same time, the series refers to Munch's use of the frieze as a form of narrative structure. However, for Förg - as for the other artists in this exhibition - Munch's paintings are merely a springboard for new works of their own. By primarily focusing on the motifs in Munch's work and on its technical aspects, Förg manages to make a very direct connection with Munch's compositions, at the same time undermining the existential content. |
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