Monk (1863- 1944) was a pioneer of expressionist art in the 20th century. The death of his parents in childhood left an indelible mark on his mind, which made him extremely sensitive to death and pain. Monk's works mostly focus on disease and death, paying attention to expressing inner feelings and presenting his "spiritual hell" with colors, lines and forms.

1890 began to create the most important series of works in life, Life Group Painting. This group painting has a wide range of themes, with the theme of "life, love and death", and reveals the anxiety and fear of human beings at the end of the century by means of symbols and metaphors. Among them, "Scream" written in 1893 is the best one in this group.

In this painting, Monk depicts a deformed and screaming figure with extremely exaggerated brushstrokes, which vividly shows the extreme loneliness and depression of modern people and their fear in front of the infinite universe.