Goya, MUNCH and the Modern Conversation

Discover fascinating connections between Francisco de Goya and Edvard Munch in this conversation between world-leading Goya expert Manuela Mena Marques and MUNCH's curator Trine Otte Bak Nielsen.
Francisco de Goya, Seated Giant, By 1818 (possibly 1814–18). Burnished aquatint, scraper, roulette, lavis. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Doors open: 13:00
Event start: 14:00

The ticket includes access to the exhibition from 12:00-17:00.

In connection with the major exhibition with Munch and Goya in autumn 2023, MUNCH presents a discussion between international Goya expert Manuela Mena Marqués, former senior curator at the Prado, Madrid for over 30 years, and Munch expert / exhibition curator Trine Otte Bak Nielsen.  
 
The conversation will start with the art of Spanish painter and printmaker Francisco de Goya (1746–1828), his foreshadowing of modernism and the work of Edvard Munch (1863–1944). Even though Goya died 35 years before Munch was born, it was only during Munch’s lifetime that he achieved international recognition. What gave rise to the Goya renaissance in Munch’s time, when he became known as ‘the first of the moderns’? And how likely is it that Munch was inspired by Goya?  
 
The connections between the two artists have seldom been investigated, and this exhibition is the first of its kind to present Munch in relation to an artist that lived before his own lifetime. The conversation will highlight recent findings and perspectives that have come to light in the run-up to the exhibition. The conversation will take place in English.  
 
Manuela Mena Marqués is a world authority on Goya, and one of her latest research projects was completing the catalogue raisonnée of Goya’s drawings (2015). Exhibitions she has curated include Manet in the Prado (2003–4), Goya in Times of War (2008), Francis Bacon (2009) and Goya: Drawings, ‘Only My Strength of Will Remains’ (2019–20). has a Ph.D in art history and worked for the Prado Museum from 1980–2018.  
 
Trine Otte Bak Nielsen has worked at MUNCH since 2014 where she has curated exhibitions including Satyricon & Munch (2022), Infinite (2021), Monumental (2021), Moonrise: Marlene Dumas & Edvard Munch (2018) and Vigeland+Munch: Behind the Myths (2015). She is currently working on an exhibition looking at Edvard Munch’s relationship to nature (summer 2024). She holds a Cand. Philol. in art history from Oslo University.