Edvard Munch: Technically Speaking

March 7, 2025–July 27, 2025, Special Exhibitions Gallery, Harvard Art Museums

Edvard Munch, “Two Human Beings (The Lonely Ones),” 1906–08. Oil on canvas. Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum, The Philip and Lynn Straus Collection, 2023.551.

March 7, 2025–July 27, 2025 Special Exhibitions Gallery, Harvard Art Museums

Discover the experimental methods of Edvard Munch, who creatively explored materials and techniques across media.

A dynamic collaboration between curatorial and conservation experts at the Harvard Art Museums, Edvard Munch: Technically Speaking offers rare insight into the Norwegian artist’s innovative techniques and the recurring themes across his paintings, woodcuts, lithographs, etchings, and combination prints. The Harvard Art Museums house one of the largest and most significant collections of artwork by Munch in the United States, and the exhibition showcases roughly 70 works, including key loans from Munchmuseet, Oslo.

Visitors are invited to explore Munch’s artistic process, uncovering his playful approach and fascination with materiality. He returned to some themes repeatedly during his lifetime, carrying motifs across printmaking and painting and demonstrating how a single idea can evoke different responses through shifts in color and orientation. In the exhibition, prints are displayed alongside the original copper plates, woodblocks, and lithography stones used to create them, providing further access into Munch’s experimental practice. Edvard Munch: Technically Speaking also features groundbreaking research that sheds new light on the artist’s techniques and processes.

Curated by Elizabeth M. Rudy, Carl A. Weyerhaeuser Curator of Prints, and Lynette Roth, Daimler Curator of the Busch-Reisinger Museum; with Peter Murphy, Stefan Engelhorn Curatorial Fellow in the Busch-Reisinger Museum.

Research in collaboration with Ellen Davis, Associate Paintings Conservator, Penley Knipe, Philip and Lynn Straus Senior Conservator of Works on Paper and Head of the Paper Lab, Abby Schleicher, Assistant Paper Conservator, and Kate Smith, Senior Conservator of Paintings and Head of the Paintings Lab, all in the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies; and with contributions from Cambra Sklarz, Diane and Michael Maher Curatorial Fellow of American Art, and Kacper Kolęda and Tai Mitsuji, Ph.D. candidates in the Department of History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University.

Support for this exhibition is provided by the Melvin R. Seiden and Janine Luke Fund for Publications and Exhibitions, the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, the Lois and George de Menil Curatorial Research Fund, and the Care of the Busch-Reisinger Museum Collection Endowment. Related programming is supported by the M. Victor Leventritt Lecture Series Endowment Fund.

A painting of a man and a woman standing on a colorful rocky shore facing away from the viewer.

Exhibition Tour: Edvard Munch: Technically Speaking

This event does not require registration; see further details below. Join us for an in-depth, hour-long tour of our special exhibition Edvard Munch: Technically Speaking (March 7–July 27, 2025), led by an exhibition curator. A dynamic collaboration between curatorial and conservation experts at the Harvard Art Museums, Edvard Munch: Technically Speaking offers rare insight into the Norwegian art...

Hours: 12:00pm - 1:00pm
Date: March 12, 2025

This woodcut print shows a well-dressed man and woman standing on a rocky shore, staring off into the sea beyond.

Gallery Talk: Edvard Munch: Technically Speaking

This event does not require registration; see further details below. Join us for a focused discussion about techniques and materials in our special exhibition Edvard Munch: Technically Speaking (March 7–July 27, 2025), led by a conservator from the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies. A dynamic collaboration between curatorial and conservation experts, the exhibition offers rare...

Hours: 12:30pm - 1:00pm
Date: March 26, 2025