Goya and Munch: Modern Prophecies

Exploring inner worlds and existential questions, Francisco de Goya and Edvard Munch had a formative impact on art history and our understanding of our times.

Francisco de Goya and Edvard Munch revolutionized art through their groundbreaking pairing of raw realism and unique imaginative power. Exploring inner worlds and existential questions, they had a formative impact on art history and our understanding of our times.

The book is published in conjunction with the exhibition Goya and Munch: Modern Prophecies, the first comprehensive presentation of these two artists in tandem. It is lavishly illustrated with reproductions of all the exhibited works and features texts by Trine Otte Bak Nielsen, Manuela B. Mena Marqués, Janis Tomlinson, Ute Kuhlemann Falck and Ask Salomon Selnes.

Ute Kuhlemann Falck is senior curator at MUNCH, where she mainly works with Edvard Munch’s works on paper. Falck holds a Ph.D. in art history from University College London, where she wrote a thesis on woodcut production in Germany around 1800. She has previously held a position in the Department of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum, working on a wide range of prints from the Renaissance to Romanticism. Falck was employed at Munchmuseet in 2011, and among the exhibitions she has curated are Edvard Munch. Works on Paper (2013, with Magne Bruteig), With Eyes Closed – Gauguin and Munch (2018) and parts of the collection exhibitions (2021). Falck has contributed with texts for the catalogues Edvard Munch. Love and Angst (British Museum, 2019) and Edvard Munch. Infinite (MUNCH, 2021). Manuela B. Mena Marqués holds a Ph.D. in art history from the Complutense University in Madrid, with a thesis on the Drawings of Carlo Maratti and his workshop at the Academia de San Fernando in Madrid (1976). Since 1996 she has been a curator of 18th century painting and Goya. Marqués began her career teaching art history at the Complutense University and later at the Autonomous University in Madrid. In 1980, she joined the Prado Museum as Curator of Drawings and Prints. From 1981 to 1996 she was Deputy Director of Conservation and Research as well as a member of the museum’s board of trustees (1990–96 ). Among the many exhibitions Marqués curated at the Prado are Manet in the Prado (2003–04), Goya in Times of War (2008), Francis Bacon (2009), The Hidden Beauty: From Fra Angelico to Fortuny (2013), Goya in Madrid: The Tapestry Cartoons and ‘Solo la voluntad me sobra’ Drawings by Goya (2019–20). Trine Otte Bak Nielsen holds a Cand. Philol. degree in art history from the University of Oslo, with a thesis on Edvard Munch’s works from Warnemünde. She worked at Vigelandmuseet in Oslo from 2006 to 2014. In 2013 Nielsen was program manager for Munch 150, the 150th celebration of the artist’s birth. Since 2014 she has been a curator at Munchmuseet, where she has curated several exhibitions, among them Vigeland+Munch. Behind the Myths ( 2015 ), Moonrise. Marlene Dumas & Edvard Munch (2018), Edvard Munch. Infinite (2021) Edvard Munch. Monumental (2021) and Satyricon & Munch (2022). Nielsen is currently working on an exhibition which highlights the central place of nature in Edvard Munch’s work and artistic practice, which will be shown at MUNCH in 2024. Ask Salomon Selnes holds a Master’s Degree in art history and curating from the University of Oslo, with a thesis based on Nasjonalmuseet in Oslo’s collection, focusing on the short-lived surrealist movement in Norway and in particular Karen Holtsmark’s painting The Human and the Condition (1935), to explore the visionary aspects of the movement and trace its tendencies through the collection. Selnes is currently working in the Department of Exhibitions and Collections at MUNCH, where he among other tasks has served as curatorial assistant on the exhibition Goya and Munch: Modern Prophecies. Janis A. Tomlinson is an internationally recognized authority on the life and work of Francisco de Goya. Tomlinson has published books on the artist’s print series, his tapestry cartoons, and a reappraisal of the artist’s mid-career within the political and social context of his era. She has also authored or contributed to catalogues of exhibitions in the U.S., Europe and Mexico. Her well-received biography, Goya: A Portrait of the Artist was published by Princeton University Press in 2020. Her awards include the American Association of Publishers 2021 Prose Award (Biography and Autobiography), the Order of Isabel la Católica, a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Woodrow Wilson International Fellowship as well as grants from the American Council of Learned Societies and the National Endowment for the Humanities. She completed her M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania after graduating from McGill University with great distinction.

Ute Kuhlemann Falck is senior curator at MUNCH, where she mainly works with Edvard Munch's works on paper. Falck holds a Ph.D. in art history from University College London, where she wrote a thesis on woodcut production in Germany around 1800. She has previously held a position in the Department of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum, working on a wide range of prints from the Renaissance to Romanticism. Falck was employed at Munchmuseet in 2011, and among the exhibitions she has curated are Edvard Munch. Works on Paper (2013, with Magne Bruteig), With Eyes Closed – Gauguin and Munch (2018) and parts of the collection exhibitions (2021). Falck has contributed with texts for the catalogues Edvard Munch. Love and Angst (British Museum, 2019) and Edvard Munch. Infinite (MUNCH, 2021). Manuela B. Mena Marqués holds a Ph.D. in art history from the Complutense University in Madrid, with a thesis on the Drawings of Carlo Maratti and his workshop at the Academia de San Fernando in Madrid (1976). Since 1996 she has been a curator of 18th century painting and Goya. Marqués began her career teaching art history at the Complutense University and later at the Autonomous University in Madrid. In 1980, she joined the Prado Museum as Curator of Drawings and Prints. From 1981 to 1996 she was Deputy Director of Conservation and Research as well as a member of the museum's board of trustees (1990–96 ). Among the many exhibitions Marqués curated at the Prado are Manet in the Prado (2003–04), Goya in Times of War (2008), Francis Bacon (2009), The Hidden Beauty: From Fra Angelico to Fortuny (2013), Goya in Madrid: The Tapestry Cartoons and ‘Solo la voluntad me sobra' Drawings by Goya (2019–20). Trine Otte Bak Nielsen holds a Cand. Philol. degree in art history from the University of Oslo, with a thesis on Edvard Munch's works from Warnemünde. She worked at Vigelandmuseet in Oslo from 2006 to 2014. In 2013 Nielsen was program manager for Munch 150, the 150th celebration of the artist's birth. Since 2014 she has been a curator at Munchmuseet, where she has curated several exhibitions, among them Vigeland+Munch. Behind the Myths ( 2015 ), Moonrise. Marlene Dumas & Edvard Munch (2018), Edvard Munch. Infinite (2021) Edvard Munch. Monumental (2021) and Satyricon & Munch (2022). Nielsen is currently working on an exhibition which highlights the central place of nature in Edvard Munch's work and artistic practice, which will be shown at MUNCH in 2024. Ask Salomon Selnes holds a Master's Degree in art history and curating from the University of Oslo, with a thesis based on Nasjonalmuseet in Oslo's collection, focusing on the short-lived surrealist movement in Norway and in particular Karen Holtsmark's painting The Human and the Condition (1935), to explore the visionary aspects of the movement and trace its tendencies through the collection. Selnes is currently working in the Department of Exhibitions and Collections at MUNCH, where he among other tasks has served as curatorial assistant on the exhibition Goya and Munch: Modern Prophecies. Janis A. Tomlinson is an internationally recognized authority on the life and work of Francisco de Goya. Tomlinson has published books on the artist's print series, his tapestry cartoons, and a reappraisal of the artist's mid-career within the political and social context of his era. She has also authored or contributed to catalogues of exhibitions in the U.S., Europe and Mexico. Her well-received biography, Goya: A Portrait of the Artist was published by Princeton University Press in 2020. Her awards include the American Association of Publishers 2021 Prose Award (Biography and Autobiography), the Order of Isabel la Católica, a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Woodrow Wilson International Fellowship as well as grants from the American Council of Learned Societies and the National Endowment for the Humanities. She completed her M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania after graduating from McGill University with great distinction.