By Steve Bergsman

Edvard Munch was eluding me.

While I was in Oslo, I thought I would seek out Norway's most famous painter, who was born in 1867 and died in 1944. The first thing I did was take the train from my hotel to a tram stop called Troyen and make the short walk to the Edvard Munch Museum, only to discover the museum was undergoing some kind of renovation or change of exhibits. Admission was free, but that was because only one room of the museum was open. Since I was already there, I made my way.

Munch is best known for his deeply psychological paintings of people clearly uncomfortable, guilt-ridden or paranoid, the most famous being "The Scream," which he originally called "The Scream of Nature." It is one of the best-known paintings of the 20th century, and it depicts a skeletal human with a fearful, tormented expression against a vibrant orange sky. It is a very simple painting, but the inherent drama is palpable — as is viewer reaction.

Years later, Munch wrote: "I walked along a road one evening — on one side the town and the fjord lay beneath me. I was weary and sick — I stood looking out over the fjord — the sun was setting — the clouds turned the color red — like blood — I felt as though a scream passed through nature — I thought I heard a scream — I painted this picture — painted the clouds like real blood — the colors screamed — It became the picture 'Scream' in the frieze of life."

Most of his other well-known paintings are similarly vibrant and disturbing. But here at the museum these tremendous Munch canvases were celebratory, almost cheerful. He won a commission to decorate the festivity hall at the University of Oslo, and these were the allegorical paintings that he would use. In a sense he was extolling the virtues of scientific disciplines. Besides being huge, the works are brightly colored and while not exactly filled with cheerful characters, the sun does shine and the heavily brushed inhabitants are out and about in the gorgeous outdoors.

The paintings were so un-Munch-like that I decided to head to the National Gallery in a different part of the city, where there is an intense collection of Munch canvases, including "The Scream."

Arriving at the gallery, I immediately headed up to the second story to view the Munch works. I wandered through room after room without finding Munch, so, I asked the security guard where the canvases were hidden. He directed me to another security guard, who guided me to Gallery 18.

Finally, I was before "The Scream." I have stood before the "Mona Lisa" and "The Last Supper" and had the same thrill. There it was, right was where it was supposed to be, which hasn't always been the case. "The Scream" has often escaped the best of Norwegian security.

There are four versions of "The Scream," two pastels and two oils. One of the latter is in the Munch Museum and the other is in the National Gallery. In 1994, the version in the National Gallery, the one I was now looking at, was stolen. It took three months to recover the painting. Then 10 years later the version in the Munch Museum, along with another revered canvas called "Madonna," was stolen. The two paintings disappeared for two years before finally being recovered.

The National Gallery owns numerous Munch canvases, most of which are on display in Room 18. Seeing them all in a group gives the viewer a better sense of Munch as an artist.

Historically he came between the Impressionists of the 19th century and the Modernists of the 20th century. He was an expressionist and, it should be noted, a contemporary of Sigmund Freud. I mention this because the people who inhabit his canvases appear to be psychologically troubled in some way. Some of his art is purely post-sexual in nature. In "Ashes," a young woman who appears to have been molested stands in the background, while in the foreground a clearly distressed man holds his head and turns away. In "The Day After" a woman is sprawled on a bed with her white blouse mostly unbuttoned. In the foreground are glasses and bottles of liquor. Not much is left to the imagination.

Notes to the exhibit include this explanation: "Munch was associated with an intellectual environment that was concerned with the major themes of the day and age: eroticism and love, spirit and matter, anxiety and the death drive. These are all weighty subjects, and Munch used thick paint strokes, delineated spacing and muted colors to express it all."

The National Gallery is one of the best small art museums in Europe. Its collection of Munch paintings is not to be missed during a trip to Oslo.

WHEN YOU GO

The subway (T-bane) stop for the Munch Museum is Troyen. For the National Gallery, take tram No. 11, 17 or 18.

Munch Museum, www.munchmuseet.no

National Gallery, www.nasjonalmuseet.no

For midpriced accommodations try the Park Inn by Radisson: www.parkinnhoteloslo.reservations.com. For lower prices the Anker Hotel is a good bet: www.anker-hotel.no.

Steve Bergsman is a freelance writer. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.