It’s bigger than you thought, the colors are brighter — and that squiggly figure in the foreground doesn’t look even remotely like Macaulay Culkin.
It’s Edvard Munch’s “The Scream,” one of the most recognizable — and ripped- off — images in the world, and when it went on display yesterday morning at the Museum of Modern Art, it drew a large, cellphone-snapping crowd.
“It’s not just the person screaming — it’s the whole environment!” marveled 17-year-old Merylyn Acosta, of Brooklyn.
Kadish Hagley, another high-school student, was less impressed:
“Crayon, nice gold-plated frame,” he noted. “What’s the big deal?”
Actually, it’s a very big deal. The piece that launched a thousand pop-culture tie-ins — blow-up dolls, mouse pads, an entire movie franchise — is one of four versions the Norwegian artist made between 1893 and 1910. Three are in Norway, where one was famously stolen in 2004 and recovered two years later.
This one, pastel on cardboard, is on loan from a private collector who shelled out nearly $120 million for it at Sotheby’s in May.
It’s on display through April 29.
“Munch is trying to communicate the horror of his own traumatic life,” said Alan Steinfeld, 56, a Manhattan arts writer and self-professed Munch-kin. “It’s a visceral communication.”