The Echoing Scream | The Birth of Expressionism | Newbury Spring Festival
Schedule
Tue, 19 May, 2026 at 10:30 am
UTC+01:00Location
Newbury Rugby Club | Newbury, EN
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We are pleased to be joining the Arts Society Newbury for another fascinating daytime lecture. When Edvard Munch created The Scream in 1893, he was responding to an intense emotional experience. Today, we would call it a panic attack. Crippling and anxious making, this primal cry was also a rallying call: for Munch and for the wider world of art. It gave birth to a movement known as expressionism, showing life not at it is (realism) or as it might be perceived in a fleeting moment (impressionism), but as it is experienced within the unembellished core of our being.Explosive and emotive, the aftershocks of Munch’s vision were felt across the world: in art and music, literature, dance and film. Charting the origins of expressionism and its historical context, this multifaceted talk embraces artists and thinkers such as Kandinsky, Klee and Schiele, Nietzsche, Freud and Schoenberg, pondering the radical ways in which they both reflected and ignited our inner feelings.
A writer and broadcaster, Gavin Plumley appears on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4, and contributes to newspapers, magazines and opera and concert programmes worldwide. He lectures widely about the culture of Central Europe. Recent appearances include Klimt and The Kiss in cinemas worldwide, and talks for the Hay and Cheltenham Literature Festivals, the Royal Opera House, the National Gallery, the National Trust, the National Theatre, the British Museum and the V&A.
Gavin Plumley lecturer
This lecture is repeated at 1.45pm.
Free for Friends of the Festival (ticket required)
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Where is it happening?
Newbury Rugby Club, Newbury, Berkshire, United KingdomEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
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