Without doubt, Vincent Van Gogh’s painting
The Starry Night is an iconic image of modern culture. One of the
beacons of The Museum of Modern Art (moma), everyday it draws thousands of
visitors who want to gaze at it, be instructed about it, or be photographed in
front of it. The picture has a flexible identity in our collective muse
imaginaire, whether in material from decorating a tie or T-shirt and as
background of our laptops too. Starry Night belongs in the front rank of the
modern cultural vernacular.
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| The Starry Night copyright:www.pinterest.com |
Starry night
was painted in June 1889, at a period of great complexity in Vincent’s life.
Living at the asylum of Saint-Remy in the south of France, a Dutchman in
Provence, he was cut off from his country, family, and fellow artists. His
isolation was enhanced by his state of health, psychologically fragile and erratic.
The letters that he wrote in 1889, in the weeks and months preceding and
following the painting of Starry Night, demonstrated his highly engaged
understanding of art:in terms of
his own picture-making practice, and the art of the past that he revered.
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| Asylum of Saint-Remy copyright:www.atlasobscura.com |
Vincent Van Gogh’s
painting Starry night encompasses poetry, personal religious conflict, and
astronomy. Its central theme is conveying the vastness of the universe through
the scale of hierarchy between the small town and the enormous night sky. The
ability for a painting to have multiple interpretations may have been influential
at the time he entered the hospital at Saint-Remy.
Although uncertainty
may exist about the exact meaning and origin of Starry night, the commonality
of the three perspective and probably other interpretations lie in the
relationship between the power of the human psyche and the power of natural
existence. Van Gogh’s depiction of the stars illustrates how feelings of wonder
and astonishment can carry a person to explore beyond the minute existence of a
town. The bird’s eye view emphasizes the vastness of space and time. Moreover,
Van Gogh’s complexity draws his multiple influences, from fellow artists,
missionary work, memories, studies of poetry and astronomy, perspective of life
to create a depiction of reality that is greater and purer. Van Gogh’s ability
to elevate reality into the realm of imagination is distinctive among canonical
art. Starry night remains exemplar in grasping the awe-inspiring quality of the
night sky in relation to the fleeting and diminutive nature of human existence
in the world.
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| Museum of Modern Art, New York copyright:www.moma.org |
References:
https://assets.moma.org/momaorg/shared/pdfs/docs/learn/courses/Thomson_Van_Gogh_The_Starry_Night.pdf
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