The impact of The Scream on the artistic world is clear when you notice the many times the Munch painting is referred to in other works.
Andy Warhol and Erró are the two artists who quote Munch's The Scream in a most direct manner.
Andy Warhol
Warhol's
pop version of The Scream (same name, 1983) is part of a series in which he reproduces a number of Munch's main works such as
Self-Portrait with Skeleton Arm. The Scream stands among the others as an icon of the modern experience of being alone in the crowd. The painting fits into other of Warhol's works about negative feelings (particularly death), such as the
Marilyns and
Death and Disaster series.
The Munch Museet in Oslo confirms the impact of Warhol's copy:
As with other masterpieces from the history of art such as Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, Warhol exploits the status of The Scream as an icon, an aspect of the work he underlines by re-using it. Yet at the same time he devalues its originality, because by contrast with the painting, the silk print can be endlessly mass-produced. In the context of the consumer society mimicked by pop-art, he questions art as a consumer product.
Erró
Other clear variations on The Scream are by fellow pop artist
Erró, who had to add a critical and satirical twist. In his 1979
Ding Dong, he copies Munch's work into comic-like features. In
The Scream, also part of the Oslo Munch Museet collection, the scream is accompanied by a group of children in a school playground in a completely different art style. In
The Second Scream, the cry is put together with an airplane, which experts think to be a reference to the occupation of Norway and possibly even the horrors of
World War II.
Jon Gundersen
An interesting and very creative variation on Munch's The Scream has been produced by Norwegian
Jon Gundersen. When you enter the Munch Museet, the first work you will notice is in the reception hall of the building (called
Psykoplasma, 1999). It's The Scream with a
hole in it. A time scheduled machinery (based on a
bike upside down) makes sure the central, screaming person in the painting blows some
soap bubbles every now and then.