Alpha and Omega
1908/09
Medium
Lithograph on paper
Dimensions
Image: 25.8 × 46.5 cm (10 3/16 × 18 5/16 in.); Sheet: 48.1 × 65.1 cm (18 15/16 × 25 11/16 in.)
Classification
lithograph
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
93407
Art Historical Context
Edvard Munch's *Alpha and Omega* (1908/09), a striking lithograph on paper, the Norwegian artist's lifelong obsession with love, life, and mortality. Measuring 25.8 × 46.5 cm in its image area, this print belongs to Munch's expansive *Frieze of Life* series, where intertwined figures evoke the biblical "Alpha and Omega"—the beginning and end of existence. The embracing couple, bathed in ethereal light against a stark background, symbolizes the inseparable bond of passion and inevitable decay, a recurring motif in Munch's oeuvre. As a pioneer of Expressionism and Symbolism, Munch channeled per...
About the Artist
Edvard Munch · 1863–1944
Edvard Munch (1863-1944) was a Norwegian painter and printmaker whose intensely psychological works made him a pioneer of Expressionism and one of the most influential artists of the modern era. His 1893 masterpiece 'The Scream' has become an iconic symbol of existential anxiety. Munch's art was profoundly shaped by personal tragedy—his mother died when he was five, his beloved sister Sophie at fo...