Men Turning towards the Sun 1911 - 1914

Edvard Munch made this painting, Men Turning towards the Sun, with oil on canvas, though when is unknown. The way he's built up the paint here reminds me a lot of my own approach. It’s all about the process, letting the marks speak and guide you. What strikes me most is the materiality; you can almost feel the brushstrokes, the way the paint is dragged and layered. Look at the figure on the left—a swirl of green and yellow, thick in some spots, almost translucent in others. The physicality of the paint creates the body, right? You get a sense of the body as a fluid thing. And then look at the other figure, more of a ghostly outline than a solid form, reaching upward. It makes me think of Hilma af Klint, another artist grappling with unseen forces, trying to visualize the invisible. Neither offers answers. What they do is invite us to look, feel, and question. The work is a conversation, one that keeps evolving as new voices join in.