That’s a good question. I remember a few 20th C cityscapes done at night, but nothing as memorable as van Gogh’s. I bet we’re forgetting something however.
I love Matisse too incidentally, and Kandinsky is one of the few painters I have on the wall myself at home. I don’t know about Kirchner though… I wasn’t familiar with him and looked him up just now, and I liked Archers, but on the whole his works left me with a degenerate and disturbing feeling. As much as Vlad’s and my taste align in music I think it at least to some extent parts ways in painting. I remember I felt the same about Francis Bacon for instance mentioned earlier. In music as in painting I’m all for an artistic take on the world or the mind à la Matisse/Picasso/van Gogh etc - or Horowitz/Pletnev/Cherkassky - but in these cases it seems to me to be a direct projection of mental illness. I have a similar problem with El Greco’s stylistic works - not necessarily projecting insanity in his case, but I find them more ghastly and unpleasant than intriguing and inspiring.
You guys have a good point about inspecting art in detail at home. And I agree about crowds at museums. However many times I’ve had space open up for me in museums and there’s nothing quite as good – in art viewing – as being in an empty or near empty room of great art – or being in one as it empties out. That has happened many, many times, I think in nearly every exhibition / museum I’ve been to (okay not at the RA’s Pre-Raphealite exhibition, or the van Gogh paintings in Musee d’Orsay). Granted it might not happen in front of the Mona Lisa, but it happened in the Louvre in the Rembrandt room, and many times in London, and every time in Germany.
@VOLODYA haha these priceless collections (sorry, corrections) landin’ in da Visual Arts thread. Marky Mark never had it so good.
True that. I had that with some huge Monet Lillies painting. I just stood there for half an hour, mesmerized…
And I share your passion for Blaue Reiter
Love them as well, this is one (of three or so) of the early 20th C styles which is right up there with the renaissance as my favourite periods in art. They worked a lot with “look at me” colours back then, but try this for instance which doesn’t rely on them at all (by Macke).
This is a great suggestion actually. Especially as his ghost is hovering all over this thread at the moment.
In case someone here is not familiar with him Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) is the painter best known today for popularizing absinthe as the drink of choice for people seeking an interesting night out, but he also did Starry Night (1889) below. He lived in a time where the camera was a thing and artists had figured out enough about painting that just about anything could be represented in a true to life way, and so it was natural for artists to backtrack or to seek new forms of expression (as you know music would soon follow). I don’t know if this is where it actually originated or if it’s just an interpretation, but I’ve heard that van Gogh’s stylistic invention came from noticing how, to some extent, you could get a feel for a person’s mood as they wrote a letter by looking at the pen strokes. A calm person would write in a soft, even and harmonious way, whereas someone agitated would hold the pen with a firmer grip and write in a faster, more resolute manner, which left a bolder imprint. van Gogh replicated this latter style with his brush, forbidding any other kind of strokes, which produced paintings of remarkable intensity and with a pronounced hallucinogenic feel to them. In fact I’d say the effect is so strong that you’ll never forget it if you’ve seen it once.
Now… This clearly isn’t an attempt at accurately painting a night sky as it looks to the eye. But I’d argue it is a true to life way of representing the raw impression of it, as how that roaring night sky was experienced. It’s not truth as Rembrandt knew it, and it’s certainly not elegance à la Raphael or light & material à la Zorn, but from what I’m aware of in art it is as intense and vivid as painting has ever gotten.
Yes, that’s my favourite painting. I think it’s at MoMA? I’ve seen the other one ‘nuit étoilée sur le Rhône’ a few times (once even in Canberra), but it doesn’t move me as much as that one.
I like that one as well, but it doesn’t feel as developed. He’s highlighting the stars by exaggerating them and their water reflections, but everything still feels comparatively quiet and static, almost romantic. If you think back at this one the stars feel uncountable and overwhelming, and this time it’s no doubt we’re no longer in romanticism. I suppose it’s that sense of motion he’s put in to the picture which does it.
I’m not art historian enough to tell, but from the branch where I’m sitting I think you can probably make the case that van Gogh was the father to the whole expressionistic movement. This is still the 1880s! And yet they remind so much of the styles from 20 or even 50 years later.
Asking me my favorite painter is about as easy a question to answer as “Who’s your favorite composer or what is your favorite piano piece?” We are blessed with so [too] many choices.
I really enjoyed The Power of Art series hosted by Simon Schama. https://youtu.be/Hv26ifhMfpk
I’m normally not that in to romanticism in painting, but I’m loving these. His handling of light is, of course, masterly, but they’re so intelligently conceived as paintings as well. Note in particular the steps he’s taken to ensure they feel balanced and proportional. Normally he lets the reflex balance the painting so it doesn’t feel top heavy, but note that when he chooses not to, he’s put some other trick in its place. In the first painting for instance you have the moon up right, and a bright orange metal reflex as weight balance down left. In the third he does use the reflex so you have a vertical stripe of light to the far left - which is balanced by a bright street light at center far right. My favourite solution is the second painting however, where he has this dark complex mass which pulls the gaze down left, and to counter it puts a solitary clear moon up right. And of course empty sky / empty water on the other diagonal. If he had added a CLOUD up left, or a BOAT down right, the painting would have tipped over in one direction. Had he added both, it would have felt crowded and gritty. It’s just tremendously sensitively and cleverly done.
