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©
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Edvard Munch

Encounter in Space

1899
Xilografía on Paper.
18.5 x 25.5 cm
Carmen Thyssen Collection
Inv. no. (
CTB.1973.44
)
ROOM 36
Level 1
Permanent Collection
30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 Postpop rooms Rodin room
30 18th and 19th Centuries. Transatlantic Relations 31 19th Century. American Landscape and Environmental Awareness 32 19th Century. American Landscape and Urban Life 33 Recovering the ligth. Restoration of Waterloo Bridge, by André Derain 34 20th Century. Expressionist Landscapes 35 20th Century. Expressionist Portraits 36 20th Century. The Language of the Body 37 20th Century. Urban unrest 38 20th Century. Flowers 39 20th Century. Pioneers of abstraction 40 20th Century. Popular flavor 41 20th Century. The Cubist Tradition I 42 20th Century. The Cubist Tradition II 43 20th Century. Abstract Utopias 44 20th Century. Dada and Surrealism 45 20th Century. Interwar Realisms 46 20th Century. American Abstraction I 48 20th Century. Post-ward American Art 49 20th Century. Post-ward European Figurative Art 50 20th Century. Informalisms 51 20th Century. Homo Ludens 52 20th Century. Pop Art 53 Postpop rooms 54 Postpop rooms 55 Postpop rooms 56 Postpop rooms Rodin Exhibition room

The title Encounter in Space is that used by Gustav Schiefler in his catalogue of Munch's graphic works, compiled with the artist's collaboration. It may therefore reasonably be regarded as authentic. That the "encounter" Munch depicts is of a sexual nature is evidenced by the presence of the spermatozoa surrounding the two figures, a motif that also features in some of his other graphic works-for example, in the border of the lithograph version of Madonna (1895). That it is of a cosmic character is emphasised not only by the title but also by the dense black of the void against which the floating male and female figures are set. Similar floating forms are found elsewhere in Munch's oeuvre, being usually associated with some kind of confrontation between the sexes, as in the lithograph Lovers in Waves of 1896. There also exists a version of Encounter in Space in the medium of drypoint.

The woodcut has been printed from a single block, cut into three pieces and inked separately: the woman (here bluish-green), the man (brick red) and the background (black). White contour lines around the cut-out shapes echo the strings of white sperm floating in the void and, at the same time, emphasise the separation of the figures one from another. From a psychological standpoint, their positioning is crucial. As so often in Munch's work, it is here the female who is made to appear the dominant force, striving purposefully ahead and upward. The male, by comparison, seems abject, despondent, incapable of action. The theme of the battle of the sexes and the relationship between man and woman also dominated his cycle of pictures The Frieze of Life, which Munch was in the process of painting or re-working at the time this print was created. The woodcut, however, is conceived in a more abstract and allusive manner than the paintings, which usually represent more directly literal or allegorical subjects.

As in the case of other woodcuts, where Munch employs the same technique of sawing up a single block and inking the parts separately (for example, Man's Head in Woman's Hair or Women on the Shore), the block has been subject to considerable wear. Small pieces of wood have broken off at points close to the position of the feet of both the male and the female figures; in this impression, the corresponding areas of colour loss have been filled in by hand. The use of a very thin, greyish paper may indicate that this is an artist's proof or perhaps a trial state, hand-printed by the artist. This woodcut is, in any case, known in only a relatively small number of impressions.

Peter Vergo
 

19th CenturyWork on paperXilografíaPaper
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Encounter in Space. Encuentro en el espacio, 1899
Encounter in Space
Edvard Munch

©

Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

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The exploitation rights of the images correspond to the Fundación Coleccion Thyssen-Bornemisza, F.S.P. The Fundación authorizes the downloading of high-resolution images from its website for private use, use for educational and research purposes and non-commercial uses.

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Encounter in Space. Encuentro en el espacio, 1899
Encounter in Space
Edvard Munch

©

Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Terms of Use

The Photo Library of the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza offers sale and rental service of photographic material of all the works of the Carmen Thyssen Collection.

To request images or permits for commercial use in academic or research publications, that is, catalogues of other institutions, monographs and other specialized publications, you should contact the Museum's Photo Library by email at the e-mail @email.

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However, photographed works are protected by copyright. Therefore, regardless of the terms of use of the photographs set out below by the Foundation, it will be necessary to obtain a license fromVEGAP (Visual Entidad de Gestión de Artistas Plásticos www.vegap.es) or from the corresponding collective management organizations in the country where the work is going to be used or, where appropriate, from the holder of their rights in order to reproduce or exploit the work.

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