July 6, 2024

At the Vampire Café...

... drink some conversation.

("Munch himself always claimed it showed nothing more than 'just a woman kissing a man on the neck.'")

12 comments:

Quaestor said...

Sure it does.

doctrev said...

Wow. So sexy. No wonder there's an entire subculture glorifying this.

Joe Smith said...

She's a ginger. She can do what she wants...

Amexpat said...

Munch did not itnitially call it that, it was the Polish art critic and friend Stanislaw Przybyszewski who gave it that name.

I see the painting and other versions often here in Oslo and I think it's ambigious. The woman is caressing him gently, unlike a vampire would. But Munch often used red haired women as a symbol of lust, often with a pale male version of himself. The standard interpretation was that Munch was afraid that the women he was involved with would suck the life forces out of him, depleting his creative energy.

Narr said...

"Munch was afraid that the women he was involved with would suck the life forces out of him, depleting his creative energy."

Which is why he denied them his essence.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Maybe it's just that the poor guy's got hemochromatosis.

Oligonicella said...

Zombie chomping down on the spinal cord maybe but vampires go for the carotid.

RigelDog said...

I see the painting as showing a compelling moment of the power of women to offer comfort and succor. The man is prostrate, seeking refuge in her lap. She shelters him and ministers a tender kiss to his neck.

We have that power. Men need us as much as we need them.

gilbar said...

this has NOTHING to do with Vampirism .. But:

today i learnt about Eve Babitz, and her book;
Slow Days, Fast Company: The World, The Flesh, and L.A.: Tales

which (apparently) is free to members on Audible (at least it was for me).
She makes 1970's LA seem WONDERFUL (especially Bakersfield, which she makes LOVELY)

I'm pretty sure i'm in love with this LA woman.. But, since she's 20 years older than me
(and, has been dead for three years); i really don't see a future for the two of us.

Anyway, I assume that MOST of you (old people) know All About Eve.. If not, you should give her a read.

Also, she (apparently) opens chess games with her knight.. WHICH I DO TOO! (but, i wear more clothes)

gspencer said...

"drink some conversation"

I chose to drink a six-pack of Stella Atrois.

Deep State Reformer said...

The story goes that Sigmund Freud was once asked about his ever-present cigar and if it wasn't really a phallic symbol. Freud acidly responded the story goes, that "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar". And in Munch's painting there is no clever symbology and a kiss may be just be a kiss as well, and all the art scholars and critics can all FRO.

effinayright said...

She's just Munching on his neck.

baddabish