Written in Munch's diary, "One evening I was walking along a path, the city was on one side and the fjord below. I felt tired and ill. I stopped and looked out over the fjord-the sun was setting, and the clouds turning blood red. I sensed a scream passing through nature; it seemed to me that I heard the scream. I painted this picture, painted the clouds as actual blood. The color shrieked. This became The Scream."

My first encounter with The Scream, regarded as one of the most recognized and prestigious images in art history, was at the Museum of Modern Art in the Big Apple. The 1895 pastel on board version was on loan from Norwegian businessman, Petter Olsen, who bought it a Sotheby's auction for $120 million, the most expensive artwork sold at an auction and the only version in private hands.

EdvardIan. :) When the artist met the writer.

After chancing upon the image's spot of inspiration in the Oslo Park I made my way to the Munchmuseet where a couple of versions of The Scream are housed. Seeing two more images of The Scream is a good reason to scream with glee. But in museums silence is God and we whisper if we need to speak. I screamed in silence.

Located in Toyen on the East side of the city, the Munchmuseet was inaugurated on the 100th year of Munch's birth in 1963. From conception to realization, the artist was part of the creation of the museum. The building was considered a modern structure at that time, a perfect home for one of Modernist's most significant artists in Norway and the global art community.

The museum's collection started with Munch donating all his works four years before he passed away. Increasing the number was the artist's sister, Inger Munch, donating more of her brother's artworks in her charge, which included a significant number of letters.

Lithography. This artwork- Self-portrait with Hat I, lithographic stone, 1927

Part of the vast collection

A closer look at the illustrated book for Inger Munch

To date, Munchmuseet's permanent collection holds over 1,200 paintings, 6 sculptures, 18,000 prints illustrating more than 700 themes and 500 printing plates, 7,500 drawings, watercolors, a library of books, documents, photographs and other items owned by the artist. Adding it all up, these amounts to 

more than half of Munch's entire production of paintings and at least a copy of all his prints.

Munch on paper in this room

The Sick Child, colour lithograph 1896

In the Man's Brain woodcut 1897

Hode ved hode, 1905, 1 of  2889 Dry point & etching.

Angst, hand-coloured woodcut, 1896

Vampyr II, color lithograph, 1895

With the increasing number of visitors and need for space to exhibit more of Munch's collection, the construction of a new and bigger Munch Museum has been approved by the Oslo City Council. By 2019, the new Munch Museum will rise near one of Oslo's most popular structures, the Opera House.

IT'S been years since I stepped foot on Sugarlandia. What I recall was how small and quiet the place was. I was mistaken. Gravely. The fact was, I never strayed from the boundaries of Bacolod City, or the perimeter of the place I stayed in. That explains the little I saw and knew of the region.

The Rizaliana Collection

Antique religious vestments, articles and documents on display.

The only pro-cathedral outside of Manila, the Iglesia of San Diego Pro-cathedral.

The only ancestral house turned museum we managed to visit and tour happens to be favored with a number of “firsts.” The 1934-built Hofileña Heritage House is the first house to be opened to the public in 1962, and the first inhabited house to be declared a museum by the NCCA and installed with a historical marker. Maybe it’s these recognitions that made the place enjoy the top spot on the list of must-visit ancestral homes in Silay (based on recommendations) as well.

Or is it? Perhaps it’s the heir that made the place more popular.

The Davao media and the staff of DOT XI with hosts from DOT VI

What started with a display of 537 paintings and 184 objects of art when it opened in August 1793 has grown to almost 35,000 pieces of artworks today. It’s history, architecture and treasures may account for why it’s the most visited museum in the world.

Queuing up to see the Mona Lisa, I’m sure.

Bustling. The amount of people visiting the Mona Lisa is constant day in and out.

Loving the contrast-- fluidity of the staircase against the sharp edges of the pyramid

With such a great number of art, it will take more than one lifetime for an avid art fan to truly appreciate and embrace what the Louvre has to offer. But there is one painting every tourist wants to see when entering the museum—the painting of Mona Lisa, the reigning queen of the Louvre. It’s the most visited painting in the world. Not only that, the Mona Lisa holds the prestige of "the best known, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world."

Did you shrink, my queen? “No, I’m sure you’re lost. I’m giving you directions to my sala,” she replied.

Admit it, your first glance of the half-smiling Mona Lisa came as a surprise, it will be the same for the rest who will see it for the first time. The bigger than life portrait is not as big in size as we expect it to be. Leonardo da Vinci‘s half-length (thought to be) portrait of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco Giocondo, is as big as your regular pillow at 30” x 21”. The title Mona Lisa comes from “Mona,” an Italian polite address for a woman, and “Lisa” for the subject’s name.

More fans by the day? This must be an everyday thing at the Louvre. I don’t remember it to be this busy.

As to the time of the painting’s completion, it is written that historians can’t pinpoint an exact time, all estimates: start of painting- between 1503 or 1506 in Florence, then left it unfinished, and finishing and refining between 1516-1517.


Before Mona Lisa finally settled in the palace, her official “kingdom,” in peace today, she moved around France from the time of the creator’s death to today. She found residence in palaces and chateaus—Palace of Fontainebleu & Palace of Versailles, Chateau d’Amboise and Chateu de Chambord, and seen three conflicts—the French Revolution, Franco-Prussian War and World War II. Although she was put on permanent exhibition at the Louvre since 1797, she was taken out of the museum for security reasons during the last two wars.

Bon giorno! My moment with the “queen” in the glass bubble.

Not many of us know this—she was “kidnapped” in August 1911 by a Louvre employee, Vincenzo Peruggia, who entered the museum on regular hours, hid in a broom closet and exited with the painting under his coat after the museum had closed. She was recovered and displayed again in 1913.

If you are at the top, you will have your share of both admirers and haters. With Mona Lisa, it was the same. While her fans line up to see her, the few who dislike her hurl more than hurting words like acid and a rock, both horrid incidents transpiring in the same year, 1956. The damaged caused was addressed and she was restored back to her former glory.

Today, while she sits on her throne at her sala and sees her millions of fans day in and out, don’t wonder why she’s behind bulletproof glass. It has protected her from more ill purposed attempts like a getting sprayed with red paint in 1974 and hurled with a souvenir mug in 2009.

How about you, have you seen this Italian star? If you had, what was your first impression? Do tell.

Published in the Sun.Star Davao newspaper on November 06, 2014.