The Econmist - USA (2021-11-06)

78 Books & arts The Economist November 6th 2021

makemainstreambookreviewerstut.But

whyshould theyoung women who are

BookTok’sstarscarewhatfogeyishliterary

typesthinkofthem?Untilfairlyrecently,

theirperspectivewasmarginalisedinboth

fictionandcriticism.Whitemendomin­

atedboth—eventhoughmostnovel­read­

ersarefemale.

BookTokhashelpedupendthathierar­

chy.Selene Velez (pictured on previous

page),a 19­year­oldAmericanstudent,is

behind@moongirlreads_(anaccountwith

185,000followers).Shefocuseson authors

whoaren’ttypically“takenasseriously”as

others.“I’ma womanofcolour,”shesays.

“Itrytopromoteauthorsofcolour.”

Atthesametime,BookTokpushesback

against publishing amnesia. Books are

imagined to confer immortality on au­

thors—tobe a“monumentmore lasting

thanbronze”,astheRomanpoetHorace

wrote—butthelifespanofmostisstart­

linglyshort. Digout alistofbestsellers

from 20 yearsago: notonly aretoday’s

readersunlikelytobuythem,mostwon’t

haveheardofthem.Manyofthebookswill

have joined the legions of what W.H.

Audencalledthe“undeservedlyforgotten”.

BookTokisresurrectingbacklists.One

reasonpublishersnoticedit,says Philip

GwynJonesofPicador,a Britishimprint,

was that, under its influence, oldtitles

were creeping back into the bestseller

charts.Itofferssuchbooks“asecondlease

onlife”,andheapplaudsit.“Eventually,a

great book finds its readers,” Mr Gwyn

Jonessays.“Youjusthavetohopethat,un­

likeKafka,[authors]don’thavetodiebe­

forethathappens.”StarttrendingonBook­

Tok,andtheywon’t. n

EdvardMunch

Light in the darkness

“T

hisgreatandlonelyartist”,wrote

J.P.  Hodin  of  Edvard  Munch,  “has

been appreciated...only by a handful of ini­

tiated people in the West. He has remained

practically  unknown  to  the  Americans  as

well as to the English and French.” A distin­

guished art historian, Hodin made his ap­

praisal  in  1950,  six  years  after  Munch’s

death, when the Museum of Modern Art in

New  York  staged  a  retrospective  of  his

work.  In  the  seven  decades  since,  Munch

has become a rock star of world art. 

“The Scream”, in which a human figure

clasps its skull against a swirling sunset, is

as  recognisable  as  Van  Gogh’s  sunflowers

or  Monet’s  water  lilies.  Its  mystique  was

boosted  in  1994  when  thieves  stole

Munch’s  original  version  of  the  painting

(he made several) from Norway’s National

Gallery. In 2004 masked gunmen made off

with  another  version  in  broad  daylight

from  the  poorly  secured  (and  relatively

small)  Munch  Museum.  Both  were  reco­

vered,  though  the  picture  swiped  in  the

second theft was damaged.

The drama in 2004 contributed to a de­

cision  to  build  a  new  museum  for  the

country’s most famous painter. Four years

later  officials  in  Oslo  announced  plans  to

house  the  city’s  trove  of  42,000  Munch­

related objects, including paintings, sculp­

tures, prints and photos. The inauguration

was scheduled for 2014—when Norway cel­

ebrated the 200th anniversary of the sign­

ing of its constitution—but wrangling over

costs  and  architecture,  as  well  as  the

covid­19 pandemic, delayed  it  until  last

month. A street party followed the ribbon­

cutting by King Harald and Queen Sonja.

“Forget everything you know about mu­

seums,”  says  Stein  Olav  Henrichsen,

munch’s  director.  “This  is  totally  differ­

ent.” (It has even dropped the word “muse­

um” from its name.) The 13­storey building

on the Oslo Fjord is one of the biggest insti­

tutions in the world devoted to a single art­

ist, with a theatre, library, cinema, rooftop

restaurant and space for temporary exhibi­

tions. It towers over the city’s opera house,

a  public  library  and  residential  buildings,

all part of a recent urban­renewal project. 

The  unusual  design  is  controversial.

Some  Norwegians  have  criticised  the  air­

port­like feel of the monochromatic interi­

or,  apparently  meant  to  accommodate

throngs  of  Munch  devotees.  Others  are

wowed by the undulating aluminium clad­

ding on the exterior, which gleams in sun­

light  during  the  day  and  emits  light

through  perforations  at  night,  setting  the

tower  aflame.  Juan  Herreros,  the  muse­

um’s Spanish architect, says he wanted to

make  art  the  building’s  protagonist.  No

whimsy was to obscure the work on show. 

As  you  might  expect,  “The  Scream”  is

the  centrepiece.  Only  on  arrival  will  visi­

tors learn which of three rotating versions

will be on display. They are part of “Edvard

Munch  Infinite”,  a  permanent  exhibition

of some of his best­known paintings, such

as “Madonna” (sometimes called “Woman

Making  Love”),  also  stolen  in  the  heist  of

2004.  “Edvard  Munch  Monumental”  pre­
      sents some of the large paintings he made
      for  the  University  of  Oslo.  “The  Research­
      ers”,  a  36­foot  (11­metre)  bathing  scene,
      reflects the interest he developed in vital­
      ism  after  a  nervous  collapse.  A  school  of
      thought  popular  in  Germany,  where
      Munch lived in the 1890s, vitalism empha­
      sised hygiene, physical education and the
      life­enhancing force of the sun.
      Munch’s  childhood  was  traumatic.  His
      mother  and  favourite  sister  died  of  tuber­
      culosis. Another sister was diagnosed with
      schizophrenia; his father suffered from de­
      pression. The artist himself struggled with
      mental  illness.  A  lifelong  bachelor,  who
      saw out his days on an estate outside Oslo,
      his  greatest  attachment  was  to  his  work.
      When he died, aged 80, he gave thousands
      of  items  and  his  personal papers  to  his
      home town. It is at last doingjustice to his
      munificence and his genius.n

OSLO

A palatial new museum celebrates Norway’s most famous painter

Everyone can hear “The Scream”