The Munch Museum keeps kissing in Saudi Arabia

Kiss on the Shore by Moonlight.Photo:Munch Museum

The Munch Museum has changed its mind, and will keep the word “kiss” in the title when the Norwegian artist is exhibited in Saudi Arabia in June.

Among the 50 Munch works are to be exhibited in the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture in Saudi Arabia. The oil painting “Kiss on the Beach in Moonlight” from 1914 is one of the paintings.

To not provoke the audience, it was at first decided to remove the word “kiss” .

The museum has now rethought the decision.

‘’I think there has been a misunderstanding on our part, and we assigned a title that we thought fit. This was never a big topic, but when it became a public discussion, we looked at it again’’ said museum director, Svein Olav Henrichsen to Dagens Næringsliv newspaper.

‘’The most important thing for us is to present Munch for the first time in an Arab country. Art creates reflection and we want to create dialogue across cultures. This is an important step in the Munch story’’ he added.

The exhibition, that opens on June 5, has been named “Edvard Munch: Landscapes of the Soul” and is aimed at the artist’s landscape motifs.

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today

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