Vik Muniz’s expansive visual lexicon has approached and explored many cultural and art-historical sources, reinterpreting them in a dazzling array of media which he then photographs. Here he addresses Edvard Munch’s classic image of existential terror, The Scream, with his unique combination of deft craftsmanship, intelligence, and mischievous humor.

Muniz’s take on The Scream remasters the original by painstakingly rendering Munch’s original brushstrokes in vivid powdered pigment. He presents the finished photograph in a vastly larger format than Munch’s original, allowing the fine pigment particles to become new details within the composition while leaving the power of Munch’s original undiminished. As in the best of Muniz’s work, his trompe l’oeile reinterpretation of The Scream radically transforms the original while remaining respectfully true to his source.