With works by Munch and Mamma Andersson, the British Museum reveals the darkness of Nordic noir

"Bringing together more than 150 works by 100 different artists, the exhibition begins with the original enfant terrible of northern psychodrama, Edvard Munch. One of two woodcuts by the artist, Munch's typically melancholic Gammel fisker (Old fisherman, 1897) is a study of a man from a distant time, as his back-breaking manual labour appears to leave impressions and incisions on the skin and the soul alike. Munch's darkness will be brief, though, as most of the exhibited works are closer to our moment."

"Curated by Jennifer Ramkalawon, the curator of Western Modern and contemporary graphic art at the museum, Nordic Noir tracks a broadly chronological structure, which swiftly moves beyond Munch by placing particular emphasis on how works on paper responded to the political transformations of the Nordic countries since the Norwegian's death in 1944. (Against his wishes, Munch was given a state funeral by the Nazi puppet regime despite being condemned by Hitler as a Modernist "degenerate" in the 1930s.)"

A free survey opens on 9 October at the British Museum in London, presenting more than 150 works by 100 artists under the theme Nordic Noir. The display begins with Edvard Munch, including two woodcuts such as Gammel fisker (Old fisherman, 1897), and then moves chronologically through post-1944 art. The show emphasizes works on paper that responded to political transformations across the Nordic countries after Munch's death. Munch received a state funeral from a Nazi puppet regime despite earlier condemnation by Hitler. Post-1945 Nordic societies combined economic renewal and social democracy with complex, often contested, artistic engagements with the state.

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