August 31, 2006
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The Meaning
Alright, alright, for all my poetry loving, paint kissing, no absolute truth exist, bleeding heart liberal friends:
What does this painting mean to you?
Alright, alright, for all my poetry loving, paint kissing, no absolute truth exist, bleeding heart liberal friends:
What does this painting mean to you?
Comments (147)
HOLY SHIT OOOOHhhhhhhhhh
Abstract art….fear and emptiness.
I just think it’s interesting. I like the partially-defined aspect.
Macauly culkin and michael jackson combined in an abstract way
Fear of always feeling alone… never finding that one special place or partner that will be with them for eternity.
uncertainty, seclusion, fear, and angst…los of angst. and agony.
he’s screaming about how happy he is Kerry wasn’t voted president
I also think it looks pretty cool, the way he blends colors and kinda swirls them altogether lol
Oh my god, I have no eyes ears or hair! I’m on the wrong planet!!! Take me home!!
I think an artist perhaps became too tired of people ooh-ing and ahh-ing over his art and had a “Then what the heck does this mean!?” type moment. I often do when people critique my art and are looking too deeply into it.
I’ve got 3 prime numbers!!
confusion
and lonliness
but im not an art connesiour, so i couldnt really say
Scratch that. counted wrong. STUPID! STUPID! STUPID!
Or perhaps I’m the only sarcastic one and he was just expressing the waves of emotion swirling around him.
How in the world should I know? Better yet, why am I answering this if I don’t?
horror
Fear of judgement. Isn’t that we’re all terrified of? The judgement of man is infinitely worse than the judgement of God.
Haha. Don’t know why that first sentence was oh so amusing to me.
The painting is like.. paranoia. Of the world around him…?
Or maybe I just don’t know anything.
Mental illness. You see the “normal” people off in the background, and then this guy just screaming. ‘Cause he knows it’s not right, but there’s nothing he can do about it.
Either that, or he broke a nail. *shrug*
The feeling of being lost….scared, angry, confused… being in a whirlwind of emotions
it also always reminded me of a drug induced hysteria, but I’m not sure within the scope of the time frame, and/or what the artist particapated in, that this would apply.
Dan,
I would answer that question, but since you addressed it as for your, “poetry loving, paint kissing, no absolute truth exist, bleeding heart liberal friends,” this post must not apply to me.
Sincerely,
Your poetry loving, paint kissing, absolutly truth exists, bleeding-heart, moderately conservative friend.
Stop the Insanity! The world is a crazy place, and sometimes you just gotta scream.
Scratch what I said earlier. He just found out there are snakes on the mother f*cking plane!!!
I can’t take life anymore! I quit!
but to answer anyway… it doesn’t have a “meaning” to me, other than I find it to be a visually appealing work of art… I look at art in an abstract way, so I usually don’t associate it with a meaning, but more of a feeling.
It’s supposed to symbolize anguish and the discombobulation associated with fear. Or at least, I think it is.
I doubt anyone can know for sure.
i looks like he is saying, “OH NO, i forgot to put my wig on today!” haha, j/k.
There is a poem about this painting that I think sums it up pretty well:
“I was walking along a path with two friends
the sun was setting
I felt a breath of melancholy
Suddenly the sky turned blood- red
I stopped and leant against the railing, deathly tired
looking out across flaming clouds that hung
like blood and a sword over the deep blue fjord and town
My friends walked on
I stopped there trembling with anxiety
and felt a great infinite scream pass through nature”
That’s pretty profound, I think. This is my favorite painting. It’s not about how well your 5-year old could copy it with finger paint, it’s about the feeling behind the piece and the emotion that it conveys. It’s not one of the most recognizable paintings in the world for no reason. I think it offers a glimpse into the universal human psyche.
While the academic answer would contain some discussion of existential angst, or the fundamental aloneness that haunts each of our subconscious minds, I would simplify that argument to saying that this work is a study of fear, anguish, and desperation.
Lonliness.
It is said by some to symbolize modern man taken by an attack of existential angst. Go figure.
What the hell?!
Ha! Some liberal meaning I made! What now?! I’m just being silly right now.
oh no
I think it symbolizes fear, and anxiety about the future. The screaming guy’s standing on a bridge, so he prolly feels safe for now, but beyond that is the Abyss, where anything could be dwelling. And he hasn’t got too many friends, either- the other people are all in the background. So he feels alone, and even though he’s screaming his bald little head off, no one is listening. That’s what I think it means.
something ridiculously convoluted and meaningless, matt-yee style!
it gives me the same feeling that a night terror would.
wiki “night terror.”
“Alright, alright, for all my poetry loving, paint kissing, no absolute truth exist, bleeding heart liberal friends:” Are you saying conservatives have no sense of art? Maybe there are more liberal artists than conservative ones…but clearly those medieval artists painting about God weren’t exactly liberal…
What does it mean to me? It reminds me of the times in life when everything’s going wrong, you’re near your death and you recall everything bad in your life…that you literally feel like you’re melting in your own desperation, frustration, and misery. But mostly I just think extreme frustration. Probably not what the artist meant, but that is the impact it has on me.
Home Alone
It’s to express an emotion or to just be random.
Be abstract.
you know, it never meant anything to me. it just always scared the living shit out of me.
to “betwixtengram”:
the judgement of man is infinitely less significant than the judgement of God; it isn’t worth a damn if God’s followers decide to condemn you to hell.
What PTSD feels like. Trapped in your own mind, terrified of the shadowy figures that pursue you (whether they be actual people, or symbolizing the past itself).
bad acid
I think it has to do with a fear. Perhaps of a relationship as there are two people in the background. The paintings name is the Scream, and all. However, I don’t know if that is the name the artist gave the painting, or someone after that named it. That would probably help a lot on what the meaning of the painting actually is.
<3 Your tree-hugging, hippie, mostly liberal, kinda socialist, arting loving, xanga friend.
absolutely nothing
He realized there’s no God
THE SOULS OF THE UNDEAD ARE RISING!!! AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
lyke omg! i lyke totally lyke forgot!
mhmmm
it kinda looks weird =/
The isolating effect of extreme emotion and how it tends to warp the world around you as you see it. Look at the guy… he’s bent, and the world around him is, but other people aren’t, because they aren’t going through what he’s going through. It’s the juxtaposition of the things that are straight and concrete (the people in the background and the bridge) and with the things that are warped and bent around this one person’s experience.
And for th epeople that said it was abstract: it isn’t. It’s clearly representing something. Does anyone really think it’s not a person on a bridge screaming wihth people in the background and a freaky-looking sky? Not abstract.
I’m pretty sure it’s a picture of how pot roasts feel on Wednesday evenings in November.
Dang, I’d make a good relativist liberal…
Ok, totally thought of something else. The way he is mirroring the curves of the sky and land in his body, and stands out from the bridge where he is standing and the other people could possibly symbolize his feeling of displacement with his current situation, like he doesn’t belong, and the angst ad such springs from that.
Why does it have to mean anything?
I’m conservative.
But I still like poetry :]
Ok, one more: just a note to MoonFaeEyryan who was saying that clearly the mideval artists painting christian subjects weren’t liberal. You can’t really say that. At that point, the church was pretty much in control, and you painted Christian art if you wanted to be successful, whether or not you were really a believer in your heart of hearts.
Which is to say nothing of the inferrance that you can’t be liberal and christian, which is just too insulting to mess with.
Fear, trouble.
If I am just ’paint kissing’ can I still answer?????Looks to me like it’s an expression is of helplessness and confusion .
Nothing. It’s just a creepy painting. Not something I’d want hanging on my wall… unless I was in a really weird mood.
He’s realizing that he’s alone and that makes him sad…. or maybe he just realized his girlfriend has cheated on him and he saw her with another man (see 2 people walking together in back groud).. haha who knows.
hey. how come only liberals get to like art?
Is this a trick question?
I would’ve given an honest answer but the number 2 comment fucked me up with the bias.
So none for joo.
Obviously, the picture is of a man who is on the Santa Monica pier who bought some bad drugs and everything started to go hazy on him. You can tell by his green countenance and facial expression. the two people in the background are the drug dealers who are walking away laughing as they count his money. To me it means that you should never buy drugs from strangers and if you do, expect to have adverse conditions. Did I guess right?
This painting was created at the end of the 19th century. At the time urban life was increasing and new diseases such as TB were sweeping through the new urban landscape. Many people felt that city life caused nervousness and an inherent illness that couldn’t really be escaped. The city created a crowd mentality. On top of all this Edvard Munch was personally struck by tragedy, both his mother and sister were lost to illness. I’m not sure that the scream is the best representative of Munch’s work, but it does fit into the themes of fear, neurosis (psychology was a new science at the time), and paranoia. Stylistically painters at the turn of the century are taking cues from the impressionists, breaking from the mimetic mode. And why not, within the past 30 years photography has become popular and inexpensive as a means to produce strict representations of nature. This encouraged many artists to seek a new role for painting. Also Munch is dealing with issues of the inner condition and sometimes it is easier to express those through less naturalistic means; anti-natural color, styalized forms, apparent brush strokes, etc.
[art historian rant]It drives me nuts when people pass judgement on a piece of art without knowing anything about the period or the artist. This painting is over 100 years old, it comes from a rather different culture than ours. It was intended for a 19th century western european audience not a 21st century mid-american audience. At least think a little bit before spouting off about abstract art. There are reasons artists make abstract work beyond the knee jerk reaction of ‘they don’t have any technical skill’.[/art historian rant]
fear of the people behind him. and for some reason i happen to think those people in the background are from the government. so to me, it’s basically the fear of the loss of freedom and imprisonment.
It’s my reaction if Hillary gets elected.
the swirling way its painted.
maybe its the style of edvard munch but
it makes it all looked warped.
just like things can often seem.
the man/alien/whatever thing is afraid
he’s screaming because he cannot understand
and it scares him that he doesnt know whats going on
hes lost his mind and everything seems foggy and clouded, warped
the people behind him stand staring, wondering in awe.
they wonder whats wrong with him because things arent warped to them
their minds are clear and they see the world fine.
maybe they’re a bit more optimistic than the man who sees the world as such a topsy-turvy kind of place.
It means that I paid attention in art history class when it came time for the lecture on German Expressionism!
XoxoxoxoX
Jane
anguish
fear
abandonment
I’ve never really given it much thought, but I do think the two people in the background have something to do with the screamer.
Fear.
Oh No!
Aaaauuggghhhhh!!!!
I’m not a big fan of Schoenburg… painting or his music. I much prefer the impressionism over expressionism. Expressionism is too emo for me.
Note to self: That’s not Schoenburg’s painting. Try to remember things better at 1AM when you’re tired.
Something I can’t explain. Not anything unique or profound, though.
He’s tired of mother fucking snakes, on mother fucking planes.
confusion, saddness, if i had a face like that, i’d do the same
horror…
I think he feels alone in a world full of unity. Notice the couple, and the pair of boats? There are a lot of pairs in that painting. I also think he is scared, notice how nothing is a straight line? Almost as if his fear has put him in a drug induced state. Even though he used some light colors, it’s still somehow dark and foreboding. Angry, even. And his eyes are blank, as if he has no soul.
Perhaps I am reading into this too much?
It means loneliness
The futility that life seems to be, at times.
Well I’m not a liberal but……..
That painting shows what liberals really look like when you strip off their mask. Miserable, hopeless and haunted by the thought that Republicans will stay in control of government. ROFLMAO
*darth vader voice* Noooooooooooooo!!!!!!!
Yes, I know that painting was made roughly a century or so before darth vader, but that interpretation is fun. ^_^
someone took a bit too much X
I don’t fit the bill but may I answer? It looks like something you have to stick on your refrigerater untill the kid is at least 5. And maybe it’s a wake up call that I need to spend more time with this child. Give him huges and kisses and maybe steer him away from finger painting by buying him paint brushes or a new X-box game.
I’m too 21 century mid-american
an person screaming when he found out that Nagen was re-elected as mayor of New Orleans
the shock of a loss of stance. the inability to react to cold openness whilst in the presence of those comfortable with it.
in case you haven’t guessed this painting is in my room. and i’m VERY liberal haha xD
Fear. We’re all afraid. This painting captures everyone’s fears with a sense of emptiness.
I’m only the bleeding heart liberal part, but I figured I could answer anyway.
Desparation ^_^ Frightenedness, confusion.
oh we discussed this in my art class. its really interesting how the colors are so bright yet the expression is one of angst. to me, this represents losing control.
How I felt when Bush was re-elected.
he’s crying. one of the two people walking away was his significant other. he was just left in the cold for someone else. he has no one.
Fear
It means there should be better artist to paint masterpieces… I really dont like it!!
I’m screaming and no one is listening. No, not me — the painting.
This is a fundo conservative who just saw a gay couple get married.
*Evil smile*
That painting is an abstract exploration of a spiral into mental illness.
The consciousness FEELS sane, but the world and reality diffuse.
The scream is all that is tangible.
The siwling emotions leads to confusion.
He’s confused, scared, terrified, lonely.
It represents the “negative” emotions human beings express.
The feeling of being trapped inside of yourself. No escape.
I think it represents a state of mind rather than a physical thing. It represents our fear of abandonment and lonliness.
I’d say the painting means a great deal of confusion and fear… to the point this man is breaking down at his very core. Hence why the entire world is blurry and in those strange colors.. it is, in essence, what one man’s psychological breakdown looks like.
That’s my take anyway.
Scratch what I said earlier. He just found out there are snakes on the mother f*cking plane!!!
Posted 8/31/2006 at 10:46 PM by two_purple_toothbrushes
Bawaahaha! Niiiice.
Seclusion, dispair, frustration…
99th! Whoa! Totally an odd number! Sweeeeeet!! I win! Gimme prizes!!
(Another fun fact about the number 99? 99% of the reason I stop by is to make fun of the people who think they’re special for making the front page! Woot! Go #99!)
Huh? What?! No prizes?? WTF, mate! What’s the point?!
That it’s going to hit you sometime, the horrible feeling that you forgot something. I wonder if he left the stove on, is locked out of his house, or just remembered that he was supposed to pick-up his mother-in-law at the airport two and a half hours ago. (With that look, I would guess that he forgot all three.)
The world is such a big place, and I’m all alone in it. It’s intimidating and I don’t know what I can do here on my own.
Eh..
I think it’s the concept of a personal hell. you can see him suffering so much that his physical appearance is skewed, yet the 2 people in the background are walking by without even a second glance. It’s showing how one person can be in so much agony but no one even sees it.
Darn … this one doesn’t apply to me, either. What shall I do as a moderate independent?
This painting symbolizes basically fear and emptiness.
-Guru on the Hill
It is The Dark Night of the Soul. The intense pain that can either kill you or change your life forever.
he’s scared…why? idk…
maybe he’s lonely…there are two ppl walking behind him…maybe they wouldn’t invite him over, or to a party …idk
Kelly
No absolute truth!? I’m going to let that incredibly false statement slide, but to me the painting shows desperation.
Presidentscafe wrote:
“Dan,
I would answer that question, but since you addressed it as for your, “poetry loving, paint kissing, no absolute truth exist, bleeding heart liberal friends,” this post must not apply to me.
Sincerely,
Your poetry loving, paint kissing, absolutly truth exists, bleeding-heart, moderately conservative friend.”
Ditto, I’m kind of miffed that you assume appreciation of art is something automatically linked to political ideology.
That guy is constipated.
OMG…THE WORLD IS GONNA END!!!!!
How I felt when Bush was re-elected.
Posted 9/1/2006 at 12:48 AM by bradbwilson
lmao..niiiice.
Invasion by a militaristic, tyranical force and the terror thereafter of no control afterwards, but only suffering at the hands of a foreign madman.
It helps if you can see the boats docked on the shoreline in the distance, but this picture might be too small. Ties in with the two men marching, patroling, in the background. Oh, and the Jupiter Sky doesn’t hurt the terrifing Chaos theme.
I always wonder what drives people to create their art? was it a nightmare he had? is it how he feels all the time? or a girlfreind left him for another man? or was he just playing a joke on us?
Fear and anguish.
The movement in the painting means to me
everything changes, nothing stays the same in this world.
No, Dan! DON’T DO IT, DAN!
They see that thing featured on your page, and next they’ll be asking people to pay to see it!
DAN! DON’T GIVE INTO THE LIBS! Stay strong!
Well, now that you mention it, that kinda looks like… the stream of vomit I let out after that last tequila shot contest.
Uuuuuugh. Never again, Danny boy.
Ew. Look at all these pretentious answers. It’s gross.
IDIOT N’ PROUD, ARTWHOREZ!
OOOO… good; finally an easy way to steal it…
..i see err, something a little less “lonely and empty and abandoned”… he’s on what appears to be a pier…with people behind him.. the artist has a land/sea color contrast.. so.. dude on a pier..at sunset, most likely wanting to spend an evening gazing into the endless colors of a goregeous oceanfront sunset, and at which point he discovers there are other people already there…… so i’m thinkin.. “FREAKIN TOURISTS GET OFF MY OCEANFRONT!!! GO RUIN SOMEONE ELSE’S PARADISE!!.. AGHHHHH!”
….maybe?
fear, angst, loneliness, emptiness
Internal struggle, the demons of the mind.
Scratch what I said earlier. He just found out there are snakes on the mother f*cking plane!!!
Posted 8/31/2006 at 10:46 PM by two_purple_toothbrushes
Hahah
It means “oh noes I shat myself and ppl are looking at me.”
funny, i was just watching GMA and they were talking about how that one and the madonna were recovered!!! hehehe!!! i think if aliens when i see that pic, but hey, i am no artist critic!
abosolutely nothing. It’s just…weird. I’m sorry, but I’m not a big fan of abstract art.
Well, the ocean looks choppy and fierce, but it hasn’t broken into a storm yet. It kind of reminds me of the frustration of medicority and waiting. That’s just my two cents. And don’t call me a liberal.
oooh, pretty colors.
Fear of always feeling alone… never finding that one special place or partner that will be with them for eternity.
Posted 8/31/2006 at 10:40 PM by glitz_n_glam07
my sis said the same thing.
even though i dont like it that much, it at one time made me like opening my eyes and excepting the horrible enmity void i call life. my eyes have been open for quite some time. but now it doesnt take a painting to do that, the media covers that job now.
It means the people behind him have caused him grief and he is screaming and running away from them.
It seems the screamer and his environment are quite warped and it’s freaking him out whilst others go about their business normally.
To me it means fear of all the terror around.
And it’s Norwegian like me!
(:
Does anyone read one hundred some-odd comments?
.
Edvard Munch, who painted that horror, has been diagnosed as bipolar. Random? Doubtful.
the desire to be free
in a artsy-obsessive way, i think it symbolizes fear of the swirling future in front of you,(symbolized by the swirling colors and such.) and the fear of your pasts mistakes effect on said swirling future,(symbolized by the two dark figure in the backround) but in a stupid-teenager-who-doesn’t-care-way, i think van gogh or whoever the heck painted it was drunk. and i am a liberal so yeah….
Oh my gosh, i totally dated that guy back there, i hope i dont have a zit or anything!!!
only because i totally hate this painting…and yes im saying he looks gay.
She’d better run
Christy
it means your a chicken shit for having a site on only coffe.
Life is too short you need to let go and have fun!!
“There’s a quiz coming up and I haven’t studied for it!”
It sums up emotion. Don’t you think? It stirs up feelings.
all i know is i really like it.
maybe afraid of the people behind him? haha
It’s screaming on the inside when things in life just suck and there’s nobody to here you.
girl looks in a picture, notices she’s bald, screams and turns into a ghost
i mean a mirror. sorry.
Oh no…Bush is stil president. :O
Impending Paranoia.
[ariana]
Fear and confusion.