Im Mannlichen Gehirn. In Man's Brain. by Roberto Matta, 1911-2002

Roberto Matta, 1911-2002
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Im Mannlichen Gehirn. In Man's Brain.

Original woodcut printed in red ink. 1897. Signed in pencil. One of a very few impressions all varying slightly. No full edition was issued. Some of the impressions were printed by Munch himself and some by Lassally or Lemercier, 1897-1906. From the block condition this must be an early impression. The exact total number of impressions existing is not recorded but the overall number is very small.
Provenance: The famous Dr. Heinrich Stinnes Collection.
Ref: Woll - Munch Graphic Work no 110. Schieffler no 98.

Superb strong hand-printed impression. On pale cream soft japan paper. Excellent condition; slight traces of old mounting in the margins. Surface excellent. Wide margins.
Sheet: 19 1/4 x 26 5/8ins. Block: 14 5/8 x 22 1/2ins (371x571mm).

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In the woodcut ‘In Man’s Brain’ Munch made one of his most powerful statements about his feeling that the male psyche was inevitably dominated by the sexual power of woman. In the composition the face of the man appears in an almost trance-like state. Through his head floats the naked woman, her hair - so frequently a symbol for Munch of entrapment - blends into wavelike lines which encircle him like tentacles. Ever since puberty Munch had felt the domination of women, first through the illness of his mother and his sister which controlled the whole atmosphere of his life at home, and then as a student when he felt totally bewildered and carried-away by the first onset of sexual attraction.

The woodblock for ‘In Mans Brain’ was cut in 1897. Over the previous five years or so Munch had made a number of visits to Paris and to Berlin. In Paris he had been deeply affected by seeing the work of the Symbolist painters like Redon and in Germany he became aware of the work of Klinger. It was undoubtedly such influences as these which helped to lead him towards finding his own deeply emotional approach to form, composition and colour, and towards finding a way to express the ideas which dominated his mind. An early exhibition of his paintings including works like the ‘The Sick Child’ and ‘Puberty’ held in 1892 in Berlin was closed after a week because the nature of the themes scandalised the public. Yet it was to be in Berlin, as well as in Paris, that he found he was able to escape the moral censure which he had experienced in Norway.

‘In Man's Brain’ epitomises the combination of symbolist expressive form and emotional dilemma which is at the centre of Munch’s early art. One of the qualities that he had found so stimulating in Symbolism was the use of colour for emotive rather than pictorial purposes. He had also started to be interested in spiritualist and occult writing. Red is one of the most powerful symbolic and occult colours, with its links to blood and passion. It is significant that unlike in many other woodcuts where he experimented with differing colours all the known examples of ‘In Man’s Brain’ (except one) are in a red ink like that of the impression here. It is an essential part of the whole composition.