Art News

Major exhibition of Norwegian pioneer of modern art Edvard Munch at Kunsthalle Bremen

BREMEN.- An exceptional discovery is the starting point for this major exhibition of the Norwegian pioneer of modern art: In 2005, during an examination of Munch’s painting “Child and Death” (1899), a second canvas was found, displaying a previously unknown painting by the artist: “Girl and Three Male Heads” (1895-98). In 1918, the Kunsthalle’s Director Emil Waldmann purchased the aforementioned work for 20.000 marks. It was the first painting by the Norwegian artist to be acquired by a German museum and one of the first ever to enter a public collection. He could not have known that the painting harbored another canvas by Munch – hidden beneath the original one. Only when the Munch Museum in Oslo requested that the Bremen work to be closely examined in preparation for the artist’s catalogue raisonné, did a conservator at the Kunsthalle discover the second canvas. The original canvas was removed and mounted on its own stretcher with the re