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Four years before his death, in 1940, Edvard Munch paints Self-Portrait Between the Clock and the Bed in his home at Ekely. Among other things, the picture shows a bedspread with a characteristic pattern. Over 30 years later, the same pattern turns up in the work of the American artist Jasper Johns. Coincidence or influence? Regardless of what the answer is, it is interesting that Johns takes up where the ageing Munch left off - with the utterly simple expression. Both Munch and Johns divide the painting into three parts. In Munch's case these are the clock, the artist himself and the bed. In Johns this is more concrete, for instance in his triptych Scent of 1973. The painting consists of three panels, which are completely covered by a pattern of cross-hatching in mauve, green and orange. The picture has the appearance of a harmonious composition, and the observer involuntarily tries to grasp the system in the hatching. Johns is concerned with the formal expression. He uses a special technique, encaustic, in which the colours are mixed with wax as a binding agent. This gives the painting a waxy surface, which covers the brush strokes in a kind of transparent membrane. Physically, the painting therefore consists of several layers. |
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