Edvard Munch’s “Anxiety”
Lesser-known than The Scream, Anxiety provides viewers with a unique sense of abstract horror.
About two years after painting his world-famous piece The Scream, Edvard Munch took it upon himself to return to the world that The Scream was painted in and create the sequel: Anxiety. While there are many things that we’ll never be able to understand about this piece, it’s a unique representation of mental illness that truly shows how it feels to experience symptoms of anxiety.
Anxiety is known to be related to The Scream. The backgrounds are the same and the paintings appear to take place in the same location. Even the characters are painted with the same grey skin color and inhuman expressions. And, the painting itself is a form of self-expression similar to The Scream.
The painting is known to be a reflection of Munch’s mental state at the time. Painting was Munch’s way of expressing himself, and he found it to be very therapeutic. He suffered greatly from anxiety and depression, which were also the factors behind his decision to paint The Scream.
The main difference between The Scream and Anxiety is that Munch painted The Scream during isolation. His feelings while painting The Scream were better represented by a lone figure unleashing their horror into the world. It’s the anxiety and fear that comes with having no one else…
