Organised by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (FCG) and the Norwegian Embassy in Portugal, in cooperation with the Munchmuseet in Oslo, this exhibition was dedicated to Norwegian painter and forerunner of German Expressionism Edvard Munch (1863-1944).
For Edvard Munch, to cite the critic Fernando de Azevedo (1923-2002) in an article in Colóquio. Artes, love and death represented the two high points through which the dramatic curve of human life passed. Both are always present as ultimate ends, as destiny.
Fernando de Azevedo also said of Munch's work: All of Munch's work, with such a profound influence on modern art, ranges between one of these points and the other [love and death], always formulating the same metaphysical, disquieting meditation at any point on the curve's journey: interrogation into the meaning of life (Azevedo, Colóquio. Artes, Mar. 1978).
Considered to be one of the most important and celebrated artists of the intellectual and artistic avant-garde in 20th-century Berlin, the chance to display an important and representative collection of Munch's engraved work did not go by unnoticed by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, which helped provide better knowledge and dissemination of the artist in Portugal.
As well as this, the exhibition was designed to coincide with a visit to Portugal by King Olav V (1903-1991), who attended the opening. The exhibition contained 104 engraving, woodcut and lithography prints, the same group that after Lisbon was also shown at exhibitions in Graz (Austria) and Augsburg (Germany).
Alf Boe (1927-2010), director of the Munchmuseet, who helped organised the exhibition, said that these pieces represented the excellence of Munch's graphic work:
I may assure you that it is in itself of high quality, and covers the entire range of Munch's work as a graphic artist (Letter from Alf Boe to José Sommer Ribeiro, Dec. 1977, Gulbenkian Archives, SEM 00120).
The exhibition catalogue included a long biographical text and critical analysis by Gerd Woll (1939), renowned historian and specialist in Edvard Munch's work and, at the time, senior curator at the Munchmuseet.
The exhibition in Lisbon was extremely successful with the public, both specialist and general, as proven by reviews of the exhibition and the number of visitors, roughly 11,600, who went to the FCG Temporary Exhibition Gallery to see Munch's prints.
The exhibition's historical and artistic importance and the public's extensive enthusiasm led the Museu Nacional de Soares dos Reis in Porto to suggest to the FCG that Munch's works be exhibited at the museum afterwards. This request could not be met, however, because of the FCG's commitment to take the event to Graz, where it would open on 21 March, not leaving enough time for it to be set up and exhibited in Porto.
After the FCG set up the exhibition, Alf Boe, who was satisfied with the partnership between the two institutions, wrote a letter to the Chairman of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation congratulating the FCG on the initiative:
A few words to thank you for the hospitality which was extended to the Munch exhibition by the Gulbenkian Foundation. As you probably well know, it is a pleasure to hang in your very good exhibition rooms, where things invariably look good and where an exhibition is easily divided into its proper sequences (Letter from Alf Boe to José de Azeredo Perdigão, Mar. 1978, Gulbenkian Archives, SEM 000120).