Awakening Men 1916

Edvard Munch made this large-scale painting called 'Awakening Men', and it feels like a story unfolding, a dreamscape rendered in layers of oil. You can almost see him working on it, adding and subtracting, searching for the right balance between color and form. I imagine Munch standing before this canvas, brush in hand, trying to capture something elusive about the human condition. Maybe the blue is about the cool of the water, or the sky, and the yellow is to represent the sunshine. The way the figures emerge from the background, they feel both present and ethereal. The paint is thin, almost translucent in places, allowing the canvas to breathe. Look at that one figure with their arms raised—there’s a sense of longing, of reaching for something just beyond grasp. Munch, like other painters, such as Van Gogh, was deeply interested in how we experience the world through our senses. It's like the paintings are still speaking to one another, across time, inspiring new conversations and ways of seeing. It's not about answers, but about embracing ambiguity and uncertainty.