Edvard Munch – “The Dance Of Life” (Unity)

This painting created by Edvard Munch is depicting the unity in a woman and the stages throughout her life. To the left the figure is dressed in white and look of early age. This is the first stage of her life, as a young woman growing up into the world. This is also hinted by the fact there is a flower growing beside her, a sign of early life. She looks to be moving quickly with her arms opened. Munch has used the colour white for her dress purposefully to symbolize light, joy and purity. As we move across the image we see a couple dancing. There is a strong feeling of unity between these two people due to the fact of how her dress is wrapping around him plus they are holding hands hinting towards intimacy between the two people. This part of the image, represents a woman in the middle of her life, falling in love. A reason for me believing that is how the Much has used the colour red as a symbol of love and passion. Carrying on to the left of the image there is a woman dressed in black with a look of gloom. I think this woman symbolizes the end of the woman’s life due to the fact the colour black represents death. She is stood still with her hands clasped. This shows the woman could be elderly. Overall I think the artist Munch has created a very symbolic image uniting the life of a woman, highlighting three important stages of her life with the use of body posture and actions plus the use of colour in her dresses. I think the painting is very expressionist because of how the strokes look very fluent creating soft shapes providing emotion.