Though Edvard Munch lived a tragic life, anyone who tells you that his prints documenting his suffering distill the essence of human emotion has never experienced the Kuleshov Effect. What “Edvard Munch’s Master Prints” at the National Gallery of Art does reveal are the obsessive practices of this Norwegian artist, who often reworked his prints after their completion—scratching out, drawing in, coloring with gouache—and who often revisited images and themes years, even decades, later. The finished products also display a masterful use of line: Take works like “Sick Child,” “Madonna,” and “Vampire.” As for that “universal human experience,” that’s a scream.

THE EXHIBITION IS ON VIEW 10 A.M. TO 5 P.M. MONDAY TO SATURDAY AND 11 A.M. TO 6 P.M. SUNDAY TO OCT. 31 AT THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART, 4TH STREET AND CONSTITUTION AVENUE NW. FREE. (202) 737-4215.