Encounter in Space (Møte i verdensrommet)

Edvard Munch

1898–99

In this woodcut print, Edvard Munch portrays two floating, simplified figures—one red, one blue-green—locked in a nebulous encounter that reads as both a meeting and a drift apart.

A deep, textured black field reads like open space while the two flattened, elongated bodies—brightly colored and outlined with scratchy white lines—seem to glide weightlessly, their ambiguous embrace at once intimate and eerie.

Dating from 1898–99, the work channels Symbolist and proto‑Expressionist concerns with inner life and alienation, showing how pared-down color and the roughness of woodcut could make psychological states visible.

Palette

Art Terms

Symbolism Woodcut Relief print Print Expressionism Figurative Figure/ground relationship

Exhibitions

The Graphic Work of Edvard Munch

1957

The Prints of Edvard Munch

1973

Edvard Munch

1950

The Masterworks of Edvard Munch

1979