So Much Longing in So Little Space

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By Karl Ove Knausgaard

Publisher Description

A brilliant and personal examination by sensational and bestselling author Karl Ove Knausgaard of his Norwegian compatriot Edvard Munch, the famed artist best known for his iconic painting The Scream

In So Much Longing in So Little Space, Karl Ove Knausgaard sets out to understand the enduring and awesome power of Edvard Munch’s work by training his gaze on the landscapes that inspired Munch and speaking firsthand with other contemporary artists, including Anselm Kiefer, for whom Munch’s legacy looms large. Bringing together art history, biography, and memoir, Knausgaard tells a passionate, freewheeling, and pensive story about not just one of history’s most significant painters, but the very meaning of choosing the artist’s life, as he himself has done. Including reproductions of some of Munch’s most emotionally and psychologically intense works, chosen by Knausgaard, this utterly original and ardent work of criticism will delight and educate both experts and novices of literature and the visual arts alike.

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5 Reviews

4.0

bookofcalm

Created about 3 years ago

Ellen McG

Created over 4 years ago

Hollie

Created over 4 years ago

“Wow! Art! Painting! Philosophy! Nonfiction! Absolutely loved this book. Such a complete, thoughtful look into Edvard Munch’s work as it pertained to his life. Knausgard took extra care to contextualize both the famous and the unnoticed works in Munch’s oeuvre, and his personal voice was the perfect accompaniment to it all, making it feel less like an art history lesson and more like a talk with a friend about an artist. It’s a pretty hefty read, not long per se but chock full of big words and terminology! I really, really enjoyed it!”

Danuta

Created almost 5 years ago

Abubakar Mehdi

Created about 5 years ago

“Funnily enough, I first learned about Munch when I was standing in front of his famous painting Madonna in The National Museum, Oslo. It was there that I learned some isolated and perplexing facts about Edvard Munch, one of the most accomplished and famous artists of the twentieth century. I learned, for instance, that he was a loner. That his mother died when he was a child and thence he suffered tragic loss of his siblings and his father over the coming decades. I learned that he once shot himself in the hand, travelled widely and never married or had children. It all sounded terribly sad. In the sullen cold and quiet of a January Oslo, I walked out of the Museum concluding Munch as a stereotypical artist; a loner, a tortured youth and a genius ahead of his time. As is mostly the case, my clever lawyer’s reasoning was both right and wrong. It wasn’t until mid-June this year that I learned that Karl Ove Knausgård wrote a book on Munch. It was titled “So Much Longing in So Little Space: The Art of Edvard Munch”. I felt like I had to read it. A few days later, I found a post on British Museum’s Facebook page advertising an exhibition called ‘Edvard Munch: Love and angst’. It was as if the universe was trying to coax me to finally satisfy the perplexity that first blossomed in my mind on that cold evening in Oslo. Who was Munch? Why is he important? But first I had to ask myself why Munch, or any artist, was important? In a world where art exhibitions have very much been an indulgence for the eccentric upper-class, is it really worth it for someone growing up in a small town in Pakistan, who never learned anything about painterly art or ever interacted with it to undertake this curious expedition? ‘So Much Longing in So Little Space: The Art of Edvard Munch’ by Knausgård answered all of these questions. In exchange of my patience and perseverance, Knausgård like a sagacious guide introduced me to the world of art criticism. It wasn’t a biographical account of Munch and his art but rather a critical study of art, Edvard Munch as an artist and his influence on other artists. Knausgård speaks as an artist, a writer, rather than a critic when discussing art. Artists are fascinating people. They use a medium to say something that can’t be said in any other medium and do so in a way that it touches and affects any sensitive person who comes across it. Munch’s art fascinates us, not for its evocative representation of sickness, loneliness, suffering and angst, but for its masterful manipulation of the medium. As an artist and painter Munch was a master innovator. His woodcut and lithograph prints are a marvellous example of Munch’s industriousness and his vivacity. This is an excellent treatise on art and the creative process that transforms a chaos of ideas in the mind of the artist to a painterly expression. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in art and can spare a few evenings to spend in the company of a master craftsman like Knausgård.”

About Karl Ove Knausgaard

Karl Ove Knausgaard’s first novel, Out of the World, was the first ever debut novel to win the Norwegian Critics’ Prize and his second, A Time for Everything, was widely acclaimed. The My Struggle cycle of novels has been heralded as a masterpiece wherever it has appeared, and the first volume was awarded the prestigious Brage Prize.