The Starry Night is an oil painting that was done by Vincent van Gogh, a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter in June 1889. It portrays the east-facing window view of his room at Saint-Remy-de-provence before sunrise with the addition imaginary village. Vincent van Gogh painting has been in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City since 1941. The Museum of Modern Art notably referred to as MoMa was founded in 1929 in midtown Manhattan. It was one of the first museums that devoted itself to modern art. Currently, it plays a critical role in creating and collecting modern art. The collections of MoMA provide a modern and contemporary art overview including architecture and design works, photography, sculpture, painting, prints, film and illustrated books.
As much as the Starry Night was painted in his studio, it will be wrong to postulate that the picture was painted from memory. The view has been determined as the one he painted from his bedroom window facing east, a view which he painted with more than twenty variations. He portrayed the view under different weather conditions such as moonrise, windy days, sunshine-filled days, sunrise, overcast days and one day with rain. Even though the hospital staff did not permit him to paint his bedroom, he made sketches on paper in ink or charcoal. The pictorial element joining all the painting is the diagonal line emanating from the right illustrating the Alpilles Mountains low rolling hills. In his 15 th version, cypress trees are seen beyond the wall surrounding the wheat field.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
A moon and star-filled night sky dominate most of the mid-scale, oil-on-canvas painting. The moon and the star-filled night sky covers around three quarters of the picture plane and appears turbulent agitated, with swirling patterns that roll across the surface like waves. The painting is also pocked with bright orbs such as crescent moon to the right, morning star and venus to the left surrounded by circles of radiant white and yellow light. Under this amazing sky, there is a village with numerous houses surrounding a church, whose steeples sharply rise above the blue-black mountains in the background. In this painting, the village is illustrated with dark colors but the brightly lit windows develop a sense of comfort. Besides, the village is dominated by the steeple and symbolizes unity in the town. The dramatic night and the night silence in comparison to the peaceful village can almost be felt in Starry Night. Vincent van Gogh places the cypress tree at the front of the night scene. The cypress tree reaches almost at the top of the canvas serving as the connection between the land and the sky. The cypress tree could be symbolically seen as a bridge between life, represented by earth and death, represented by the sky. It is painted in the same way as the sky with fluid lines which improves the Starry Night painting flow and its easiness on the sky.
Formal analysis of the Starry Night
The choice of color in the Starry Night, especially the dominance of yellow has been debated for a long time. From his expression of yellow color, some people believe that Vincent van Gogh suffered from lead poisoning or any type of brain disease which explains his strange of color in other paintings. The use of yellow and white in van Gogh’s painting develops a spiral impact and puts more emphasis on the sky. The vertical lines including those of the cypress tree and church tower smoothly breaks up the composition of the painting without retracting from the night sky illustrated in the painting. His choice of greens and dark blues was complemented with mint green touches that illustrate the moon reflection. The buildings at the core of the painting are portrayed blocks of oranges, greens and yellows with red dashes to the left of the church. The blue dominance in the Starry Night is balanced by the orange of the night sky elements. Additionally, he utilizes rich colors of the night which relate with the true character of the Starry Night where colors suggest emotions.
Apart from using various colors, the Starry Night also uses light. The passion of van Gogh for night time in the painting is evident where the sky sits above the quiet town. In this painting, van Gogh seems to contrast life and death using luminous stars and a gloomy peaceful village. The key light sources are the crescent moon and bright stars. There are several interpretations in the Starry Night painting. Firstly, the canvas illustrates hope. Even with a dark night as shown in the painting, it is possible to see light in the windows of the houses. More so, the shining star that filled the sky showed that there is light to direct people. It seems that he was recovering and had found his heaven. Van Gogh knew that in death he will be peaceful and depicts this by utilizing bold colors in the painting.
Opinion
I think the Starring Night symbolizes human nature as a creator. The painting tells people that the universe is in a constant movement. The little buildings, church and houses remind us that man develops for his or her security. Van Gogh transcended the mankind banality by giving us a small piece of God. His brushstrokes are beautiful and the use of fingerprints when the brush is not enough tells us that the universe is in a constant movement. I like the painting because the painter utilized numerous key ingredients to make it. The main ingredients of this painting include different colors, use of imagination, strokes and techniques. The sky color is what makes the painting appear as a starry night. Blue with yellow shades creates the vibrant sky. The white and blue swirls blend into what resembles the gusts of wind. The background rolling fields and hills make the sky to appear majestic. The strokes around the stars make them to shine brighter and become a center of attraction. I like this painting because it also uses techniques that include color mixtures and length of strokes that causes the landscape to be overlooked by the sky. As much as I like the Starring Sky, I dislike with the painting because it is highly subjective. The artist was often inspired by the night sky. I chose the Starring Night painting because there is a sense of inspiration behind it. The painting is the mental representation of how van Gogh interpreted the world and the idea of freedom he had desired.
The experience of looking this work online is better than looking at it in real life. In online platforms, a person can easily access materials that describe the artwork. Using online work, a person can easily compare and come up with a solid conclusion about the art. Online experience is less costly and convenient. On other hand, looking at this artwork in real life is costly and time wastage. A person who needs to know about this artwork will have to travel across different countries looking for the artwork. However, real life experience enables a person to feel and test of the actual artwork.
Museum
A museum is an organization in the service if the society that acquires, investigate, conserves, communicate and portrays tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its surrounding for study, education and enjoyment purposes. Museums are important in people’s life because they document daily life. They are used to record everyday life within a culture. Museums also educate people about other people’s local culture, display optional perspectives on history and link people with different backgrounds. Besides, museums display alternative perspective about history by displaying histories, perspectives and timelines people have never heard before, changing the mindsets of people who have never been educated outside the dominant culture. Museums connect people from different backgrounds by creating a network of support for different minorities and groups. It is support networks like these that prevent cultures from disappearing and languages from dying.
Museums and their patrons are critical components in the effort to prevent culture and language loss. These losses occur when the minority culture feels inferior or unimportant and strives to make its children like those of the dominant culture. Museums educate other people’s culture by displaying the local culture in the museum. With a more educated population that respects minority cultures, culture loss will reduce. I have a good relationship with museums in the past. Visiting museums gives me ne experiences and an opportunity to learn new things that I am not used to. It also makes me feel good because they give individual reinterpretation of past experiences. While in the research, an individual can refresh their minds and be in a relaxing mood. Museums give a person a chance to learn. After visiting a museum, an individual can become smarter than before because the attendant gives people new knowledge about people that lived before us. Since I started visiting museums, I have never had museum horror. Instead, I enjoy visiting museums because I learn a lot from there.
References
Bailey, M. (2018). Starry night: Van Gogh at the asylum. White Lion Publishing.
Janes, R. R., & Sandell, R. (Eds.). (2019). Museum activism. Routledge.
