418 – “Realism is concerned only with the external shell of nature. People content with the discoveries they have made ignore the fact that there are other things to be discovered, even broader avenues to be explored.”

–Edvard Munch [Full Quote Below]

Quote Number:  781

Source: Quoted in Prideaux, Sue. Edvard Much – Behind the Scream. Yale University Press: New Haven. 2007, pg 81

Source Notes: I was unable to identify the original source of this quote as I do not have access to the book it is quoted in, but it is cited as: Nice, January 1892, OKK 1760. This is a short citation, as the source had been quoted earlier.

Context: “Realism’s ‘truth’ as embodied in painting and literature now solely consists of things capable of being seen by the eye or heard by the ear. Realism is concerned only with the external shell of nature. People content with the discoveries they have made ignore the fact that there are other things to be discovered, even broader avenues to be explored. They have found bacteria, but not what they consist of.”

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