Evaluation of Expressionist Artist Edvard Munch's Art Work "Melancholia" within The Scope of Freud's Article "Mourning and Melancholia"

Expressionism, one of the 20th century modern art movements, rejected traditional style and prioritized individuality. Expressionist artists made color a symbolic element as a style and used it vividly and brightly. Lines and forms were also reshaped by the artists’ subjective interpretations. Expressionist works were a reflection of the artists' characters and were able to bring the artist and the viewer together in a spiritual context. Edvard Munch, one of the pioneer artists of Expressionism, shared sections from his own life in his works. The artist's life was spent in a lonely and depressive mood. Munch's hopeless, depressive and melancholic perspective on life made his works unique. One of the artist's works, Melancholia, was shaped by the death of his loved ones and being left alone in his life. Melancholy became a theme in Munch's works as a depressive reaction. In addition, neurologist and psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, also considered melancholia as a spiritual reaction and defined it in his article Mourning and Melancholia. Munch's work depicting the melancholic individual overlaps with Freud's this article. The purpose of the research is to define Expressionism, to examine the life of Expressionist artist Edvard Munch, and to evaluate Munch's work Melancholia within the scope of the melancholic personality structure and characteristics defined by Freud. Keywords: Art, Expressionism, Edvard Munch, Sigmund Freud, Melancholia