The Scream of Extinction. 2022

Edvard Munch (1863-1944) painted The Scream in 1893, on a fjord, where he felt exhausted and depressed, as “he sensed an infinite scream passing through nature. … The agonised face became one of the most iconic images of art, seen as symbolising the anxiety of the modern human.”

Whether Munch actually felt a scream of nature, or used natures blood red sunset to overdraw his ill state of mind, Boxems remake makes the actual scream of nature crystal clear by adding numerous extinct and nearly extinct animals.

Acryl on wooden panel. 210 by 125 cm (80 by 50 inch).

Depicted animals:

  • Pinta Island tortoise (Chelonoids Abingdonii). Lonesome George, extinct 24-6-2012;
  • Scarlet Macaw (Ara Macao). Wild population ±300;
  • Vaquita (Phocoena Sinus). Population ±10;
  • Amur Panther (Panthera Pardus Orientalis). Population ±84;
  • Borneo Orangutan (Pongo Pygmaeus). Population halved from 1999 to 2015.