Originally this piece was called “Love and Pain”. It was only later that it picked up the name “Vampire” and interpretation of a man locked in a vampire’s embrace. Munch maintained it was nothing more than a woman kissing a man on the neck.

Personally, I don’t like either interpretation. I see a man in emotional pain, and a woman comforting someone she loves. Her hair is carelessly draped over him, covering him from the outside, as if he ran like a boy seeking his mother. Instead, his lover suffices. And she knows just by the look on his face that this is what he needed. They are so familiar, even this bizarre circumstance is met with understanding and concern. She doesn’t ask what is troubling him, she knows it is dreadful, imagining the horrible details.

The Nazis declared it morally ‘degenerate.’ Some thought it was about his visits to prostitutes, yet others saw it as some sort of macabre fantasy about the death of his favorite sister. Evidently Munch remained ambiguous about the deeper meaning behind it.

  • craftyindividual@lemm.eeM
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    1 year ago

    A wonderful piece, focused and intense. I guess I’m seeing more of a caring embrace than a blood sucking event. Perhaps people expecting something sinister from Munch decided she was a vampire?

    It doesn’t surprise me that Nazis would criticise someone visiting prostitutes - a direct and affordable source of nude models for centuries of artists - but it’s a definite hypocrisy when you consider their practices :S