Being on One’s Own
17.06.2008
On October 10, 2007 at Grand Café Orient situated at the House of the Black Madonna the Royal Norwegian Ambassador in Prague Peter Raeder, Ing. Libor Winkler, CSc. and Prof. PhDr. Petr Wittlich, CSc launched a new book “EDVARD MUNCH – Being on One’s Own (responses, diaries, documents)”. The book, prepared by Otto M. Urban, Jarka Vrbová and Tomáš Vrba, is composed of three sections: an essay about the Norwegian painter as an eminent figure in the 20th century culture; excerpts from his fascinating illustrated diaries (the first collection of this extent published outside Norway) and an essay on Munch’s influence on the development of Czech art after his successful exhibition in Prague in 1905, which changed the course of Czech modern art. This section contains the complete edition of period responses to the exhibition. The monograph is published as the fourth volume in the Vera effigies Series focusing on key personalities in art at the turn of the 19th century. It contains 223 reproductions of Munch’s oil paintings, graphic works and photographs kindly lent by the Munch Museum in Oslo. The book is not only the first large monograph on Munch, but also a guide to the history of culture at the turn of the 19th century.
The book was published under the auspices of The Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, The State Fund for Culture, Czech Republic, The Norwegian Embassy in Prague and RSJ Invest, a.s. The translation of Munch’s diaries was published with the financial support of NORLA Agency, The State Fund for Culture, Czech Republic and The Norwegian Embassy in Prague.