BBC Radio 4 – Artworks, Art that Conquered the World, The Scream

It’s one of the most famous, reproduced and pastiched images of all time. Edvard Munch’s The Scream is a celebrity, one of a small number of artworks known the world over. But how and why did The Scream hit the big time?

In this series, art historian Dr James Fox traces the twists of fate and happy accidents that pushed a handful of artworks to the forefront of global pop culture. The story of The Scream is an unlikely one – over the decades it has been an obscure, experimental artwork, a national treasure, a stolen masterpiece, an inflatable, an emoji , the most expensive painting in the world and a gift to cartoonists.

Both a profound expression of human suffering and an icon of kitsch, The Scream has somehow conquered the world.

In conversation with James are the art historian Noah Charney, designer Angela Guzman, mural-painter and businessman Robert Fishbone and The Times political cartoonist Morten Morland.

Producer: Julia Johnson
Executive Producer: Laurence Bassett
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4

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