Return of The Gothic

No, this is not about politics, but about art. I keep telling my wife that we must accept change and that all the new features we have such as cell phones and computer programs that cause so much frustration, for everybody, also offer us advantages that we did not have previously. On the other hand, much that is new draws from the past.

An exhibition at the National Gallery in Oslo called “Gothic Modern: From Darkness to Light” delves into this concept. The show will be on there until June 15 before moving to its last venue, the Albertina in Viena. I learned about it from an article on Artnet written by Jo Lawson-Tancred called “How Art from the Middle Ages Inspired Modern Artists”.

Though I had not thought about this before, when some of the late 19th and early 20thcentury artists, like Edvard Munch (1863-1944) and Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945) were cited, it seemed obvious. For instance Kollwitz’ etching depicting workers mourning the German Communist Karl Liebknecht who was murdered by state forces in 1919.

The press release from Oslo says, “The Gothic is often associated with elements of darkness and mysticism, the frightening and the inexplicable.” It’s hard to deny when you think of Edvard Munch and images like “The Scream”. Even more to the point might be “Ashes”, a vision of despair as two lovers separate after an amorous encounter. Furthermore, it is known that Munch made studies of Gothic cathedrals and their rose windows through which light penetrates darkness.

When the exhibition opened in October of 2024 the German newspaper, the Frankfurter Allgemeine called it “the most daring exhibition of the year”. The show originated from the research of its guest curator, Juliet Simpson, of Coventry University, that had led to an international research project.

Quoting from the Coventry University Press Release, “… Edvard Munch, Käthe Kollwitz, Vincent Van Gogh and Marianne Stokes pushed the boundaries of art and society by drawing inspiration from Gothic art.” Marianne Stokes (1855-1927) was an Austrian artist who emigrated to England. Her painting of 1908, “Death and the Maiden”, from the Musée d’Orsay certainly evokes all the features mentioned above about the Gothic, elements of darkness and mysticism, the frightening and the inexplicable.

A painting of an earlier date is included in the show and it is obvious why. It is an 1872 Self Portrait with Death Playing the Fiddle by Arnold Böcklin (1827-1901), lent by the Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin. It looks directly back to images by Hans Holbein the Younger (circa 1497-1543).

As mentioned earlier there is a continuum but still, the artist that surprised me the most was van Gogh (1853-1890), who we usually associate with “Starry Night” and vibrant colors. The painting that was featured is his 1886 monochrome “Skeleton with Burning Cigarette” from the van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. We are quite sure that van Gogh suffered from mental illness and his later work illustrates his fascination with mortality and the dark side.

Following its Gothic theme the show associates the morbid subjects in early 20th century art with examples in medieval art. Granted many of these themes have been repeated through time. As we all know, “there is nothing new under the sun”. Still, I like to look at and think about art from different angles and not be subject to doctrine. When we are guided by others, we can often make our own leaps to find personal insights.