The Scream is an expressionist artwork by a Norwegian artist named Edvard Munch. It is produced on a cardboard in four versions including oil, tempera, pastel and crayon (edvardmunch.org, 2011). Originally referred to as The Scream of Nature, the artwork depicts a human figure holding his head with agony on his face and his mouth open in a scream ( Hawley-Dolan & Winner, 2011) . There are two more human figures in the background with wooden rails on their left. The landscape in the background is red and orange in color at the skies while the foreground is blue.
American Gothic, on the other hand is a 1930 oil on beaverboard painting by an American painter named Grant Wood. It depicts an American farmer with his daughter in the foreground with a gothic nineteenth century house in the background. The man is holding a pitchfork to depict his status while the girl is dressed in an apron that is characteristic of the American colonial attire (Jane, 1976). The painter picked his sister and their dentist as the models while the house was inspires by a house in Iowa. The couple in the painting seems unhappy with the woman staring vacantly into space while the man looks directly into the viewers. Both are tight-lipped and their stare in different direction reveal a serious attitude.
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Various elements of art and design have been applied in the two artworks with each enhancing specific qualities. In The Scream, for example, lines have been used extensively to communicate to the viewer about the subject. The parallel lines at the left side of the artwork, for example, outline the road and the rails while the wavy lines represent the landscape and the skies respectively. Shape is another element that helps the viewer make out the subjects especially the three men in the painting. The man on the foreground, especially, has had his head well represented with the mouth and nostrils well visible. The eyes have also been shaped in a way that they seem to bulge and it would be in a frightened individual. The use of color, on the other hand is well articulated especially with the rough strokes of brush that outline the fiery skies and the jagged landscape.
American Gothic also required the painter to employ the same elements of art in its production. It is the use of line that reveals the features of the characters on the artwork and the structures in the background. The man’s aging face is highlighted by the wavy lines that outline the creases (Jane, 1976). The woman’s wavy hair, on the other hand can be seen dangling beside her neck. The use of triangular shapes, as elements of art, further enhances the artwork by communicating the roofs outlines to the viewer. The artist has also used color to highlight the blue sky, the skin color and attire of the couple and the shrubbery in the background.
The two paintings have got certain attributes that seem to compare. To begin with, they are both produced on board. This is a striking comparison considering that there are other popular surfaces such as canvas. Both artists have also used oil as the medium for their productions. Although Munch uses three other media in his reproduction, it is evident that he has used oil just as Wood has done in American Gothic. The two paintings also compare in their depiction of human subjects. While there are two people in Wood’s artwork, there are three in Munch’s. More so, both paintings tend to display the world as a dull place and its inhabitants unhappy. The stone-faced couple in American Gothic, and the screaming man in The Scream, give the viewer the idea that there is no joy in the world. Outdoors, and especially the skies, is another feature that is common in both artworks (Jane, 1976).
All the same, there are also features that tend to contrast between the two paintings. Whereas Wood, produced his artwork from observing posing models, Munch’s work is purely from imagination and could not be possibly representing a known person or people. Lines have also been used differently with Wood making fine outlines of his subjects while Munch’s The Scream incorporates rough outlines. The use of color also presents a contrast between the artworks with American Gothic having cool colors that match perfectly while The Scream has color that clash (Prideaux, 2005). The style of production is another difference whereby The Scream is a form of expressionist art while American Gothic is a realist work of art. There is also a notable difference in the way the two artists make use of space. While in American Gothic the painter allows the couple to fill the foreground making the painting look like a portrait, Munch’s artwork tends to diminish the human subjects while the presents the universe as expansive (Winter, 1999). In this light, while the couple in American Gothic appears in control, the man in The Scream appears to in the process of being engulfed by the universe.
In conclusion, Wood and Munch are genius artists from different eras and regions and each has made a name for himself in the international art industry. A close study of their artworks reveals that each artist must use the various elements of art. More so, it is notable that individual style is defined by how the artists make use of the elements. All in all, there are various attributes that highlight the comparisons in the artworks while there are also features that bring out their contrast.
References
Edvardmunch.org (2011). The Scream, 1893 by Edvard Munch.
Hawley-Dolan, A., & Winner, E. (2011). Seeing the Mind Behind the Art: People Can Distinguish Abstract Expressionist Paintings From Highly Similar Paintings by Children, Chimps, Monkeys, and Elephants. Psychological Science, 22 (4), 435-441. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25835394
Jane De Hart Mathews. (1976). Grant Wood's Vision of the American Scene. Reviews in American History, 4 (4), 588-593. doi:10.2307/2701436
Munch, E (1893). The Scream. National Gallery.
Prideaux, S. (2005). Foreword. In Edvard Munch: Behind The Scream . Yale University Press. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5vkzw8.3
Winter, A. (1999). Art Journal, 20 (1), 61-63. doi:10.2307/1358852
Wood, G. (1930). American Gothic. Art Institute of Chicago.
