Edvard Munch's Howls and Whys

Edvard Munch makes me scream:

With anger, at the overheated attitude toward artmaking he’s helped propagate: "I am artist, hear me roar."

With laughter, at the silliness of some of the things he found to roar about.

In derision, at how wildly overwrought his pictures can get.

With annoyance, at the platitudes he clung to - about women, about mental illness, about art.

And, more than occasionally, with pleasure, at the wonderfully subtle, innovative painting and printmaking that peeks through his melodrama, and even overcomes it.

A new Munch retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, the first in this country for nearly 30 years, gives a wonderful opportunity to plumb the depths - or paddle the shallows - of one of the world's most popular artists. And to get in a dose of Primal Therapy at the same time. - Blake Gopnik, Washington Post Staff Writer