It can feel like technology is ripping us apart, ruining us. Hate and fury spilled out on social media. Deep fakes meant to enrage and deceive. AI aimed at outsourcing distinctively human jobs — artist, therapist, doctor. This feeling isn’t new.

The industrial revolutions crushed a lot of spirits (and lives). But coming out of the second industrial revolution technology fueled artistic innovations. The Harvard Art Museums newest exhibition, “Edvard Munch: Technically Speaking” (now through July 27), looks at how one artist used inventive techniques across paintings, woodcuts, lithographs, etchings, and combination prints.

“It flips the script with more emphasis on prints than paintings,” Elizabeth Rudy said at a preview of the exhibition last week.

Rudy, the Carl A. Weyerhaeuser Curator of Prints, collaborated on the Munch project with fellow curators Lynette Roth, the Daimler Curator of the Busch-Reisinger Museum, and Peter Murphy, the Stefan Engelhorn Curatorial Fellow in the Busch-Reisinger.

Munch’s work can express heavy existential dread — the Norwegian artist is best known for “The Scream” (sorry, you’ll have to go to Oslo to see the most recognizable version of the work). And much of what’s on display in “Edvard Munch: Technically Speaking” evokes pain and isolation. After all, two of the key pieces in the exhibit are named “Melancholy” and “Two Human Beings (The Lonely Ones).”

But so many works collected here — 70 in total — burst with color and lively techniques such as combining prints with hand painting. Active chiefly from from the 1880s to the 1940s, Munch embraced and often pioneered emerging printmaking technology with wonderful zeal. “Technically Speaking” shows how Munch used jigsaw woodblock to print parts of a piece in different colors, combined lithographs with hand and woodblock coloring, and worked with his own small hand-crank press to make his art. The flipped script is a refreshing rebalance of what museums typically present — loads of painting, a few prints off to the side.

For those who might worry the exhibit is either too technical or arty to interact with, it’s remarkably open and accessible. They have on display the actual puzzle pieces he carved with a jigsaw to make his prints along with plenty more printing plates of wood, stone, and metal. They include a free pamphlet with a glossary to give you insight into technical painting and printmaking terms used in the exhibit (the booklet unfolds to become a keepsake post of a version of “Two Human Beings (The Lonely Ones.)”

Speaking of free, the Harvard Art Museums are completely free everyday. That includes special exhibits like this one. Yes, as of 2013, you can stroll in, look at a Van Gogh for ten minutes, and leave.

Technology can be alienating. Art can be inaccessible. An exhibit on how an artist used the cutting edge techniques of the day could be both. It’s not.

There’s so much in “Technically Speaking.” Vibrant colors and deep, deep blacks. Fishermen and fjords of Norway laid out on large canvases. Intimate family portraits and edge pieces confronting modernity. But one takeaway is that art humanizes everything. Even when its subject matter is fraught with complications. Even when it depends on technology to bring it forth.

For details, visit harvardartmuseums.org