Comment:This is one of relatively few drawings which Munch has furnished with a title. And since "Art" is not exactly a prosaic or insignificant title, we may assume that he wanted to say something essential about a topic which for him was of the utmost importance. The motif appears as a mixture of "Metabolism", where dead bodies nourish new life, and the "Blossom of Pain", where the flower/Art grows from the artist's "heart blood". Perhaps the relationship between man and woman, sometimes tender, sometimes destructive, may create an artistic impulse, even after it has ceased to exist? (MB)