ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM

Expressionism is a modernist movement in Europe around the 20th century. It was the search for
ways to represent emotions expressively. Using new, intense colours, applying exaggerated
shapes and visible brushwork, artists expressed their emotions, mind, or sensitive issues. A group
of artists (Brücke) were preoccupied with the paint and the process of painting, rather than the
subject. Colour Field artists eliminated the emotional, personal and gestural application of the
other Abstract Expressionists, although their work is meant to make viewers feel calm and are
usually created with careful planning. Action painting is created spontaneously, through dripping or
slinging paint onto a canvas, which means that the action of painting is as important as the
painting itself. They painted freely, often with large brushes, sometimes dripping or even throwing
paint onto their huge canvases.

Wassily Kandinsky
Wassily Kandinsky was born in Russia in 1866. He used to study law and economics but then he
wanted to pursue a career as an artist. The art of Kandinsky established itself rather fast. Other
artists and he formed The Blue Rider. Kandinsky was the leading head of the group. The Blue
Rider had only a short life due to the outbreak of World War I. In 1910, Kandinsky created his first
abstract work: a watercolour. He wanted to carry spirituality and the depth of human emotion
through abstract forms and colours. He had synaesthesia. Kandinsky's works were removed from
German museums and confiscated. The artist's next destination was near Paris where he
remained until his death in 1944.

Cossacks 1910/11

This was made with oil on canvas and is part of a ten-part collection. Wassily Kandinsky believed
paintings did not need to represent the real world. He felt that emotions could be expressed
through the way colours and lines were arranged in a painting. The ‘cossacks’ are Russian
cavalrymen, who helped to defend the nation against Napoleon France.

Here are three Cossacks, with red hats and two of whom hold long lances. Their
red hats help us to identify them within this highly abstract form. To see the third
Cossack without a lance would suggest that he was himself in command.

Cossacks depicts a mountainous landscape with zigzag birds.

A cheerful rainbow in the middle ground.

 While two more riders clash on horseback waving sabres, above a central
rainbow.

Jackson Pollock
Paul Jackson Pollock was born in 1912 in the United States. His older brother, Charles, was like a
father to him. Charles was an artist and had a significant influence on him. Pollock considered
symbolic titles misleading, and instead used numbers and dates for each work he completed.
Pollock's art became darker in colour. He abandoned the "drip" method and began painting in
black and white. He died in 1956.

Summertime: Number 9 A

Pollock gives the composition a sensational rhythm and movement with horizontal format and
complex layers of line and colour. In this oil on canvas painting, there is a series of dancing
figures. This is “action painting”. Pollock put the canvas on the floor and with sticks he dropped
black and grey or silver house paints. The other colours that can be seen in the painting, like
yellow, blue, red, and purple, were made with oil paint and were more calculated and applied with
brushes. It is the “visual representation of jazz”.

Piet Mondrian
Piet was born in the Netherlands in 1872. Music and art became constant features in his
household. His uncle influenced him a lot. Mondrian qualified as a teacher and began to work
within the primary education sector. He practised painting in his spare time, preferring works of a
pastoral nature. He changed his artistic direction from figurative painting to an abstract style, until
he reached a point where his artistic vocabulary was reduced to simple geometric elements.
Mondrian demonstrated his preference of working in a series; as he chose to focus on a singular
subject and went on to carry that subject through several paintings. He died in 1944.

Composition with Red Blue and Yellowish-Green 1920

This style can be summed up by one thing: brilliant primary colours of red, yellow and blue. These
primary colours had been present in his earlier work, but after this point they disappear and are
abruptly cut off. They were replaced by browns and greys, but now these colours made a huge
resurgence. At first the colours were slightly broken tones such as yellowish-green or orange with
grey and blue hues for the white ground. By the end of this year, the paintings had become
uniformly white with pure colours. This turn of events can probably be linked to a tragic event in his
life which is his father's death. Mondrian produced many dramatic illusions with colour planes
stretching up off the canvas and then being dragged back down by offset colours at the base of
the painting. As he progressed further with his paintings, he could no longer be as random in
distributing his colours as they are in nature. He had to control them. He resorted to constant over-
painting in search of a solution.

Edvard Munch
Edvard Munch was born in 1863 in Norway and died in 1944.
His mother died when he was five, his eldest sister when he was 14. His father was verbally
abusive. Munch’s father and brother also died when he was still young, and another sister
developed mental illness.
The violent emotion and unconventional imagery of his paintings, especially their daringly frank
representations of sexuality, created a bitter controversy. Critics were also offended by his
innovative technique, which to most appeared unfinished.

The Scream 1893

The original painting used oil, tempera, and pastel on cardboard. There are four other versions:
pastel; lithograph, second pastel and tempera. The Scream is also part of the series of paintings
“Frieze of Life”.
Munch used swirling lines to create a sense of movement. The bridge, the two other figures on the
left-hand side and the distant boats in the water are painted with rigid lines and shapes. This may
represent a contrast between nature and the civilization being forced upon it. The two figures on
the left-hand side are simple and abstract, but not really distorted like the main figure. This really
alienates the main figure, which was painted with elongated hands, a curving body and primitive
facial features.
In the background there is a powerful contrast between exaggerated reds and oranges, and the
dull blues, greens, purples and greys used for everything else.
Whilst the painting appears relatively simple, there is a contrast between two pairs of
complementary colours: red and green, and orange and blue.
He painted to represent his soul. He chose an unrealistic style to paint his emotions, rather than
focus on realism and perfectionism. Munch painted a moment of existential crisis. He was walking
down a road, while the sun was setting. His friends were walking with him, but he stopped, while
they continued walking. He described having a panic attack. The Scream is a description of the
existential crisis and signs of depersonalization disorder. After painting The Scream, Munch went
to a hospital because he claimed he was hearing voices. Anxiety was the follow-up of The
Scream. It was similar, except for there are more people, facing the viewer and none is screaming.

Conclusion
Artists convey emotions through non-traditional and non-representational ways. It delivers the idea
that art should be created by spontaneous and subconscious creation. In order to express
emotion, the subjects are often distorted or exaggerated. At the same time colours are often vivid
and shocking. The aim of Expressionist artists was to express emotional experience, rather than
physical reality.

REALISM

Realism emerged after the Revolution of 1848. Realists democratized art by depicting modern
subjects drawn from the everyday lives of the working class with an accurate, detailed,
unembellished depiction of nature or of contemporary life, in a naturalistic and realistic manner
(almost in a photographic way). This movement in French art flourished from about 1840 until the
late 19th century and sought to convey a truthful and objective view of contemporary life on direct
observation of the modern world. French artists initially used realism to sarcastically depict political
issues and problems. Other artists incorporated realism by painting scenes of the working class,
rural and urban life, and portraits dealing with the naked body. Early painters tended to incorporate
warmer hues and colour palettes in their works with extensive use of soft browns, warm reds,
black and ivory hues. This was to emphasize the plight of workers. The subjects are shown as
serious-looking and humble – there’s never a cheerful sentiment.

Realism was marked by the shift of philosophical perspective in Naturalism (including Charles
Darwin’s evolution ideas), and the Scientific, French and Industrial Revolutions. Naturalism
differed from realism in its assumption of scientific determinism, which led naturalistic authors to
emphasize man’s accidental, physiological nature rather than his moral or rational qualities.
Naturalism originated in France and was short-lived; but it contributed to art an improvement of
realism and new areas of subject matter.

Most works produced during this movement were portraits. Portraits could be full-length, half-
length, three-quarter length, bust, or head and shoulders portraits. They could also be individual,
double, or group portraits. Finally, they can differ according to their pose: profile view, full-face
view, or three-quarter view. Artists wanted to represent his or her character, disposition, and even
inner psyche. They made very specific choices about the background and what it might reveal
about the subject.

Peter Paul Rubens

Peter Paul Rubens was born in 1577 in Germany and died in 1640. His masterpieces include
portraits, landscapes and altarpieces. Rubens was famous for his religious, mythological and
allegorical compositions. He travelled and worked in Spain, copying and incorporating the
techniques of Renaissance and classical art. He was an art collector. Rubens was "the prince of
painters and the painter of princes" due to his frequent work for royal clients.

Portrait of Sussana Lunden, Peter Paul Rubens, ('Le Chapeau de Paille')

This is a portrait of Susanna Lunden, daughter of the Antwerp merchant Daniel Fourment, an old
friend and client of Rubens. He painted dark, oversized eyes and exaggerated length of her neck,
as well as the background of billowing cloud and the simple colour palette. Her eyes are
emphasized by the blue of the sky and her dilated pupils by the black of her hat, but she does not
meet our gaze. Her arms are crossed in a way that seems slightly defensive. That also
emphasizes the narrowness of her waist and the shape of her bust. Rubens has centred her
chest, her skin made luminous by the sunlight, while her face is cast in the shadow of her hat brim.
The hat led to the painting acquiring a nickname: ‘The Straw Hat’. The hat is a distinctive feature
of the composition but it was not made of straw. The most likely explanation is that there was a
misspelling in the title that was originally in French.

Jan Van Eyck

Jan was a Netherlandish painter who perfected the technique of oil painting. His naturalistic panel
paintings, mostly portraits and religious subjects, made extensive use of disguised religious
symbols. Jan van Eyck painted meticulous portraiture and also panoramic landscapes that appear
to recede far into the distance. With oil paints, Jan van Eyck was able to pursue detail and depict
textures and atmospheric light which is evident in all of his paintings. Van Eyck used rich colours
and indirect ligthning. In many of the artist's works, especially in portraits, there is a still-life quality.

The Arnolfini Portrait: (1434; Oil on Oak Panel)

In The Arnolfini Portrait Jan van Eyck rendered everyday objects in spectacular detail. One way he
does this is through his use of light and shadow. By establishing a light source from the window on
the left he created the subject’s clothes, the room, and objects in a three-dimensional way. This oil
painting reflects a marriage scene.

The subject is domestic: a man and a woman hold hands in an interior setting, with a window
behind him and a bed behind her in natural symbolism of fifteenth century marital roles. The
clothes demonstrate wealth and social standing. Those fabrics were expensive luxuries. The
blooming tree outside the window suggests that the day was warm. The dyes he used were also
expensive and showed the wealth of this couple. Van Eyck also made sure to include tiny,
beautiful details (matching gold/silver cuffs). These demonstrated his own talent for skilled,
intricate brushwork, and also that the couple pictured were wealthy and educated.

The artist employed everyday objects to illustrate meanings based on commonly held knowledge
of certain metaphors. The small dog was a symbol of fidelity, the single burning candle symbolized
the presence of God, and their shoes indicated that this event was taking place on holy ground,
while the oranges on the chest under the window may refer to fertility. The ceremony required
witnesses, which van Eyck provides in this portrait. Against the back wall of the room, there is a
small convex mirror reflecting the back of the couple and two individuals who appear to watch the
ceremony. On the wall above the mirror the artist has written an inscription in elaborate script that
says “Jan van Eyck was here in 1434” (legal document).

Leonardo Da Vinci

Leonardo Da Vinci was born in 1452 in Italy and died in 1519. He was known for his dramatic and
expressive artwork. Da Vinci is known for capturing subtle expressions making his paintings look
more alive than others. He contributed to the field of art with techniques such as sfumato (the
smooth transition from light to shadow) and chiaroscuro (the use of strong contrasts between light
and dark to achieve a three-dimensional effect). Leonardo recognized that one way to paint
scenes realistically was to observe with great care how animals, people, and landscapes really
looked. He was also careful to notice the differences in how an object looked when it was close by
or farther away, and when it was seen in bright light or in dim light.

Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh was born in 1853, Netherlands. He was famed for his bold, dramatic brush
strokes which expressed emotion and added a feeling of movement to his works. Vincent van
Gogh was a post-Impressionist painter. He struggled with mental illness and remained poor and
unknown throughout his life. Van Gogh's art helped him stay emotionally balanced. Vincent was a
perfectionist, he used to paint the same portraits several times, trying different backgrounds and
improving the realism of the faces that he painted.

Portrait of Joseph Roulin Arles, April 1889, Vincent Van Gogh

This Portrait of Joseph Roulin is one of Van Gogh’s paintings of his neighbour and close friend.
Roulin was the devoted father of a large family. Van Gogh found comfort and companionship with
them, and they are the subjects of many of his paintings. Van Gogh was drawn to Roulin's
distinctive facial features, his devotion to his wife and children, and his exceptional kindness.

Van Gogh expressed character not by the imitation of the appearance but through the vivid life of
colour. He was influenced by Paul Gauguin. They had an argument and Van Gogh underwent a
psychotic episode in which he menaced his fellow artist and then sliced off a part of his own ear.
Later on, Van Gogh entered the psychiatric hospital. Joseph visited him. Joseph was described as
a fatherly figure by Van Gogh.

Joseph’s face is “saturated with colour”. The postman is portrayed in a frozen moment of time, but
full of energy, buzzing with life. In the face, a bushy beard, and somewhat crooked nose the
viewer senses a man conscious of being watched. Van Gogh painted the vibrating coat and cap
from his uniform with the dark, thick lines of a pen. This picture was completed quickly, in a single
session. It is thought that this portrait was not painted from life but from memory or previous
portraits. Van Gogh plays with the lights using different shades of blue and gold (buttons). The
backdrop had swirling flowers. Van Gogh painted six consecutive portraits of Roulin’s family.

The artist usually painted the same thing multiple times. It is believed that he copied and
redesigned their creations to keep painting his loved ones.
Portrait of William Brooke Baron of Cobham and his family by Master of the Countess of Warwick
(1567)

This is a group portrait of a family. It was produced by the Master of the Countess of Warwick
(when the name of an artist is not known art historians make one up. In this case, the artist is
“named” after a portrait of the Countess of Warwick which is clear by the same hand). It is a half-
length group portrait since it displays the upper bodies of the family – up from the waist.

The portrait shows a family which belonged to the British nobility since the father, William Brooke,
holds the title of Baron Cobham. The portrait also includes his wife Frances (who is standing) and
their six children. The other seated woman is Frances’ sister Johanna. This family was wealthy
because only the rich could have commissioned portraits of this kind at this time.

The technique used was chiaroscuro (light and shades). The colours used are kind of dark. The
man’s skin is a bit darker than that of the rest of the family; this was because of his role of
provider, he went outside more often than his family. The extremely pale tone of the skin of the
ladies and the children symbolically meant either wealth or the privilege of not having to work.

To represent such subjective and symbolic aspects artists often paid less attention facial features
and that is why the faces look very alike. However, the artist did make very specific choices about
the foreground: the members are well-dressed in fine and expensive clothes, and the women were
wearing jewellery. The way children were dressed like small adults may also comment on the non-
existent concept of childhood. Moreover, the table is laid with pewter plates: one contains a
selection of fruits, other contains sweetmeat. The fact that the food is served on plates is another
indicator of wealth since the food could have been on the table directly. The children’s pets are at
the table too - a parrot, a goldfish attached by a thread or chain, a marmoset, and a small dog.
Some of them are from South America and were exotic animals. In the background, there is a
column through which it can be inferred the height of the house, a fireplace, and a stone scroll that
bears an inscription in Latin which praises William Brooke.

Conclusion

It sought to produce detailed portrayals of real and typical contemporary people and situations with
accuracy, and not avoid unpleasant or sordid aspects of life to show the truth of the world.

POST-IMPRESSIONISM (STILL LIFE)

Post-Impressionism emerged in France during the late nineteenth century. It led away from a
naturalistic approach. Artists attempted to express emotions and not just visual impressions. They
focused more on symbolism and abstraction, using color and form in more expressive manners.
They used vivid colors, thick application of paint, distinctive brushstrokes and real-life subject
matter. But they also emphasized geometric forms, distort forms and used unnatural colors. Post-
Impressionism reflected the vision of the artists, united by similar concerns.

Consistent characteristics:

1. Patterned brushstrokes (short).

2. Unnatural colours to capture emotion or perspective.
3. Symbolism (abstraction and geometrical shapes in unexpected ways).
Post-Impressionism vs. Impressionism:

Impressionism sought to naturalistically capture an experience through a depiction of the world as

the artist perceived it. Impressionist paintings used realistic light and color to capture and share
the artist’s particular impression of the subject. Post-Impressionism focused even further on the
painter’s individual point of view. Artists used flat shapes and unorthodox colours to elicit the
energy of the subject matter rather than depict it accurately.

Still life

It is a picture that shows close-up arrangements of inanimate objects. They have allowed artists to
show their skill in imitating the appearance of things, above all three-dimensional volume and
surface texture. They have a symbolic meaning.

An Allegory of the Vanities of Human Life, Harmen Steenwyck (1612-1656)

It is a Dutch 'Vanitas' painting, a work of art containing symbols of mortality or the impermanence
of material things. It is essentially a religious work. They caution the viewer to be careful about
placing too much importance in the wealth and pleasures of this life. Each object is used to
symbolize a facet of human life. The skull first draws the eye, alluding to death. Books symbolize
knowledge, musical instruments symbolize enjoyment, and the rare Japanese sword and the shell
symbolize wealth. The chronometer and lamp are symbols of the ephemerality (short) of life.

Each object in the picture has a different symbolic meaning that contributes to the overall
message:

The skull, the focal point, is the universal symbol of death. The chronometer (the
timepiece that resembles a pocket watch) and the gold oil lamp which has just been
extinguished, mark the length and passing of life.

The shell (south East Asia), is a symbol of wealth and only a rich collector would
own such a rare object from a distant land. Shells are also traditionally used in art
as symbols of birth and fertility.

The books represent the range of human knowledge, while the musical
instruments suggest the pleasures of the senses. Both are seen as luxuries and
indulgences of this life.

The purple silk cloth is a physical luxury. Silk is the finest of all materials, while
purple was the most expensive colour dye. The Japanese Samurai sword
represents both military power and superior craftsmanship. These razor edged
swords, which were handcrafted to perfection by skilled artisans, were both
beautiful and deadly weapons.

The stoneware probably contained water or oil; both are symbolic elements that
sustain life. The oil paint became transparent and a Roman emperor painted
beneath the jar can be seen. This shows a change to the composition (complex
to simpler).

Sunflowers, Vincent van Gogh

Vincent Van Gogh adapted Impressionist techniques and colour to express his emotions. He
transformed the contrasting short brushstrokes of Impressionism into curving, vibrant lines of
colour. Van Gogh painted a series of at least seven sunflower pictures.

Fifteen sunflowers sit in a vase. The flowers fill the canvas, touching both top and sides. The
composition is symmetrical. The table is simply a strip of orange marked off by a blue outline. The
vase and flowers cast no shadows. The sunflowers stand out against the pale background. The
absence of shadows and shading means the flowers produce the effect of a flat silhouette. Van
Gogh gave the picture depth: the seed-heads are stippled in thick paint with the handle of a brush;
the green leaves of the drooping flower on the left was carved into the still wet paint of the
background; the back wall it was painted with a single colour but it was animated by a patchwork
texture. The Sunflowers are almost a relief sculpture in paint.

Van Gogh developed his colour symbolism: yellow was the colour of hope and friendship. He
painted with yellow and orange. The only other colours are green and blue (orange’s
complementary colour).

Still life with oranges and walnuts, Luis Meléndez (1716 - 1780)

Luis Meléndez is the leading Spanish still-life painter. Success did not come in Melendez´s
lifetime: he was expelled from his academy, failed to become court painter to King Carlos III of
Spain and lived and died in poverty.

On a wooden table or shelf are arranged chestnuts, walnuts on a plate, oranges, a melon, two
earthenware jugs with paper covers, a small wooden barrel and some circular and oblong light
wooden boxes.

There are earthenware jugs, probably containing oil or wine.

The barrel probably holds olives.

The round boxes were normally used for storing cheese.

The rectangular boxes are used to hold dulce de membrillo. The artist's signature and the
date 1772 can be seen on the end of the foremost oblong box.
The placement of these everyday objects might seem arbitrary, but the composition was arranged
carefully. They are arranged in a compact group. Though the colour range is limited, the intense
light emphasizes the range of textures. They are almost exclusively oranges and browns carefully
distributed. Set against a dark background, the objects have a monumental presence. Their
shapes give a rich variety of volumes and planes.

Everything shown is a container of some sort (natural or man-made), holding something both
edible and delicious. But the contents are largely hidden from view, and we can only speculate.

Fruit dish, bottle and violin, Pablo Picasso (1914)

Pablo Picasso was born in Spain but he spent his life in France. In 1907, he met Georges Braque
with whom he worked to create cubism. They moved away from the Renaissance paintings. They
emphasized that the paintings, as flat objects in themselves, were as important as the objects
represented.

The fragmented forms of a table, a bowl of fruit, a bottle, a newspaper and a violin can be
identified. It is not immediately obvious that we are looking at a bowl of fruits, a violin, a bottle and
a newspaper on a table with a table cloth. Parts of the objects gradually emerge from the shapes
and colors. For example, the table leg is represented by bold, curvaceous lines in the bottom left
corner.

Picasso combines front views, side views and downward views of the objects. At the fruit bowl, the
left side was painted from the side, and the right side from a higher angle. By painting things from
different angles, Picasso tries to give the viewer a more complete idea of what the whole object
would look like. He shows front view of the violin’s sound board and also shows us its curved head
from the side. He moved from place to place and painted them at separate times.

In this still life, Picasso created a kind of painted collage, with overlapping areas. He does not
paint a whole newspaper, but includes a small part (AL). The round shapes suggest a whole
bunch of grapes. The color does not give the viewer any clues about the texture or “real” color of
the objects. Picasso mixed paint with sand to create texture. Violin and Bottle is typical of his
Synthetic Cubism, in which he uses various means. During Analytic Cubist, Picasso had
suppressed color, so as to concentrate more on the forms and volumes of the objects.

Conclusion

Post-impressionism influenced major art movements and painters with its explorations of abstract
forms, colours and textures.
SURREALISM

Surrealism originated in 1910/20. Artists painted illogical scenes with photographic precision,
created strange creatures from everyday objects, and developed painting techniques like
juxtaposing unexpected images together in absurd and mysterious ways meant to channel
dreams, hallucinations, nightmares, or simply the artist’s imagination. Surrealism creates art in
which the impossible becomes “real” through a disparity of what we see and what we know about
reality. The immediate precursor to Surrealism is Dadaism, a Paris-based art movement that
embraced non-traditional modes of art to mock and antagonise the conventions of art itself.

Characteristics

 Realism: things were made to appear to be true, even though they could never be.
 Spontaneously-created: objects were found spontaneously to create unexpected works of art.
 Subverting convention: Surrealist art involved randomness, and unpredictability, by
juxtaposing and contrasting unrelated things together (“irony”).
 Expressions of the subconscious mind: Surrealist painting created abstract images, led by
subconscious desires and not grounded in reality.

Basic Principles

 The non-rational is the base.

 The unconscious predominates and dominates.
 Knowledge and information is the fundamental basis of creation.
 Observation is the cornerstone of design.
 Decision making must be immediate without concrete purposes. There are no mistakes, only
opportunities; the minimum error must become the fundamental piece of a masterpiece.

Surrealism Techniques

 Automatism: the practice of drawing, painting, or writing automatically or without thought to free
up the unconscious mind and allow many interpretations.
 Exquisite Corpses: a technique for collectively creating art. It involves starting a sketch and
then giving it to another person to continue without letting that person see what has already
been written or drawn.
 Frottage: rubbing with graphite over wood or other grained substances and grattage, scraping
the canvas.
 Combined Images: techniques that combined images not normally seen together.
 Symbols: elements that look like one thing but stand in for something else.

Salvador Dalí
Dalí was born in 1904 in Spain. Dalí produced many surrealist paintings that are described as
collages of his dreams and subconscious thoughts. He joined the Surrealist Group but he was
then expelled. He kept on producing surrealist paintings. He retired from painting due to a motor
disorder and he died in 1989 of heart failure and respiratory problems.

The Persistence of Memory, Salvador Dalí (1931)

It is oil on canvas. Hard and soft surfaces coexist. The artwork opposes Surrealism to reality and
questions the inevitable past of time. It also shows the artist’s obsession for symbolism.

The beach is from where the artist grew up (north of Catalonia). He came up with this idea after
watching melting camembert. The artist then resorted to the paranoiac-critical method, in which he
induced himself to hallucinations to access the subconscious while making art. He affirms being
surprised and sometimes terrified about the things that appear on the canvas.

 Three soft watches symbolise time, which is relative, in movement. As in our dreams, past,
present and future coexist and function in synergy.
 The ants invade the solid watch and symbolise decomposition and death.
 Time flies and passes by, represented by flies.
 The olive tree, a symbol of wisdom, is dry, dead. It’s a sign of the past.
 Dali symbolises his emotional emptiness by the empty shoreline.

Joan Miró

He was born in 1893 in Barcelona, Spain, and he died in 1983. Miró used doodling and automatic
drawing to spark his creativity, but his works were carefully composed. He created elaborated,
fantastical spaces. He relied on biomorphism (shapes that resemble organic beings but that are
hard to identify as any specific thing).

The Harlequin's Carnival, Joan Miró (1924-5)

The carnival is “Fat Tuesday”, the Christian celebration before Lent, when people eat rich, fatty
food, before giving up animal products until Easter. Miró was going through an economic crisis for
which he did not have a job and couldn’t buy food. He paints fantasy, ambiguity and naivety.
In this oil painting, Miró focused on the children's universe. The painting shows beings and objects
moving and marking a rhythm, and colours and shapes that draw the attention of the viewer.
 He feared being trapped. The ladder provided him escape and freedom. The eye and
ear next to the ladder, suggest that he must use his senses to escape.

The distant and high steps of the ladder are the steps that every person must take to rise
from the earthly to the spiritual plane.

The bevel refers to the Masons (the man is the creator and builder of things).

The sphere is associated with the face of the moon. It is painted with black and white
as the yin and yang (balance).

The Harlequin was a common theatre character, victim of unrequited love

and frequently played the guitar. In the painting he is a guitar, and he has
the character’s traditional features. His eyes look very sad, and there is a
hole in his stomach (hunger).

He carries a very small triangular palette. In the other hand he carries a

flute that transforms into a candle and in turn turns into a black dragon
that is playing with balls (juggler).

The monkey in the work symbolises joy and fun. It personifies the happy
life and people who never get angry and is the other side of the blue
insect, which is the creative effort.

The red bust has a guitar. The musical tunes show that is being played.
The bird begins with its trill, while he holds a cloth that has the colours of
the Spanish flag.

The musical notes, guitar, mischievous patterns represent festiveness,

the “carnival” sentiment: Miró’s cheerfulness even during starvation.

The insect is losing blood and is laying three eggs, which are larger than his own
body. It refers to the creation of the world.

The wheel-like shape represents a dream catcher,

emphasising Miró’s dream and hopes.

All the elements on the table balanced the work with the other geometric shapes.

Cats dressed as harlequins play with a yarn of wool.

René Magritte

René Magritte was born in in Belgium in 1898. His paintings were puzzling and intriguing, but they
also were disturbing. They had multiple interpretations. Instead of excavating the unconscious,
Magritte created lucid images. Magritte felt that “most people do not see because they are
unwilling to open their eyes”. His titles reinforced the enigmatic quality of his paintings (more
poetic than "explanatory”). They had nothing to do with the physical subject. He considers himself
a thinker who happens to paint.

The Son of Man, René Magritte (1964)

This self-portrait was commissioned by Magritte’s friend and attorney, Harry Torczyner. It depicts a
man standing facing us. Both of his arms are at his sides, and three-quarters of his rigid bodycan
be seen, primarily his upper torso. The man’s face is mostly covered by a large green apple with
five leaves. All we can discern are hints of his eyes, especially his left eye, and the slight wrinkle
lines on his skin around his mouth. It appears to be daytime. However, in the background, there is
a cloudy greyed sky and below it a blue ocean. There is light on the man (shadow in his coat). The
horizon line is strongly delineated, where the sky and ocean meet.

Magritte utilises colours to blend in and stand out. In the background, the dominant colours are
blues and greys (cooler tones, sombreness), like the suit. The red tie and the green apple are
the only two bright colours that stand out from the monotones.

Magritte explains that the meaning is the conflict between the visible and hidden aspects. This is
one of the most used themes in his series. However, Magritte also uses everyday objects to twist
our perceptions of what is real or not.

Man Ray

He was born in 1890 in the U.S and he died in 1976 in France. He was the only American to play a
major role in both the Dadaism and Surrealism. Man Ray met Duchamp, and they collaborated
together. He experimented with photography to make "camera-less" pictures. He made these
rayographs by placing objects directly on light-sensitive paper, which he exposed to light. He also
experimented with solarization.

Fair Weather, Man Ray (1940)

It was the culmination of his surrealist work. He left France and returned to the United States.

● Both figures may represent the artist.

● A door divides the image in two. The right side represents France and the left the United
States, where the artist is ready to go.
● The candle at harlequin’s apex is protected by a glass, which denotes fragility. But also, the
fact that the candle is alight shows faith and persistence in hard moments.

ON THE FRENCH SIDE

● In the background, a silhouette of a couple can be seen in front of a painting.

● In the roof, there are two creatures that are believed to represent the difficulties of love.
● There are references to the SWW: the harlequin is holding the door’s knocker which
bleeding through the lock.

ON THE AMERICAN SIDE

● There's a book that contains the name and the date the painting was made.
● A brick wall with some bricks missing, which invites you to escape.
● In the wall there are two tridents, one of them covered in blood. There are many theories
about what the tridents represent.

Conclusion

Artwork is controlled by the unconscious mind, to see the creativity and imagination in its purest
form. Therefore, surrealism focuses on one’s imagination, that's why some artists used their
dreams. The nature of the images does not make sense.

POP ART

Pop Art emerged in the mid-1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop Art
presented a challenge to traditions by including imagery from popular culture such as advertising
and news. It was characterised by a sense of optimism during the post war consumer boom. It
included different styles but they all had in common an interest in mass-media/production/culture.

Artists found inspiration in techniques that were native to comic book art, fashion illustration, and
magazine design.

 Printmaking and silkscreen printing: in print-making there are four common techniques
 (woodcut, etching, lithography, or screen-print). It allowed replicating their artwork, challenging
the idea that art should be rare or one-of-a-kind.
 Collage: it was used in conjunction with other painting techniques on a single canvas or
surface. It layered images cut or ripped from advertisements, magazines, and newspapers.
 Mixed media techniques: they are similar to collages; however, mixed media techniques can
also expand to the use of three-dimensional or other objects. Artists combined images and
placed objects to create a new narrative form.
 Ben Day process: it is well-known for its series of dots, but other shapes can be used. Ben-
Day Dots were most seen in colour comic books to create the effects of shading.

American vs British Pop Art

Pop Art developed almost simultaneously in both the USA and Britain. There were differences
between British pop art and American pop art: the British were not surrounded by American
commercialism. British artists created humorous pieces, while Americans tended to create bolder
work. In America, Pop was against Abstract Expressionism. Whereas in Britain Pop Art was a
response to austerity and against the outmoded cultural establishment.

Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol was a magazine illustrator. He was born in 1928 in Pennsylvania and died in 1987.
He used a wide variety of art forms (filmmaking, writing and blurring the lines between fine art and
mainstream aesthetics). His work focused on the iconography of celebrity and material culture
(Campbell’s Soup Cans, Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley).

Marilyn Diptych (1962)

He initially began depicting the actress shortly after her death. It is a silkscreen painting which
contains fifty images of the actress, all taken from the film Niagara. Half was heavily pigmented
while the other half was colored in black and white. The work was a commentary on the relation
between Monroe’s life and death. The comparison with the religious work references the
idolization of Marilyn Monroe. He chose her because Marilyn embodies celebrity status and was a
'sex symbol'. It is an ironic commentary about mass media's obsession with celebrity culture.
Warhol refers to a society in which people can be seen as a product rather than a person. He
reduced shades and used bright colours. By focusing on her iconic features, Warhol reminds us
there is a real woman underneath.
Roy Lichtenstein

Roy Lichtenstein was born in 1923in NY and died in 1997. In his works were parodies. He was
inspired by the comic strip. His artwork was considered to be "disruptive". Lichtenstein often used
art from comics and adverts in his paintings. He saw the act of taking an existing image and
changing the context as a way of transforming its meaning. He uses a sense of contrast between
dull and vibrant colors to emphasize the importance of what’s going on and where the focal point
is.

Whaam! (1963)

Whaam! is based on an image found in a DC comic, All American Men of War. It bears
Lichtenstein’s anti-war beliefs. It was created when America was involved in the Vietnam war, and
threatened by the Cold War. It was painted with acrylic and oil on canvas.
He has changed the image in more subtle ways. He has divided it into two, partly as a joke. One
canvas is shooting another down, this is called a diptych. Often in diptychs the subject of one of
the panels is looking at what is on the other.

The outline of the resulting explosion emanates in yellow, red and white. ‘WHAAM!’ jags
diagonally from the fireball in yellow, as if in visual response to the words of the pilot. The two
canvases have different types of composition. The one on the left it is full of movement: from left to
right and from the front into the distance. The other expands from a centre. Every shape, line or
curve is refined to make a more perfect picture of a less perfect one (not to make it more real: it
wasn’t an aeroplane but an image of it). This painting includes warm colors, as well as neutral
colors.

Richard Hamilton

Richard Hamilton was born in 1922 and died in 2011. He was an English painter and collage artist.
He started the crucial elements that defined the style and laid the groundwork. Richard Hamilton
widened the gap between pop music and contemporary art.

Swinging London (Richard Hamilton 1967)

This painting was an acrylic and silkscreen on canvas, and it is based on a photograph, taken from
a newspaper, showing Mick Jagger handcuffed to an art dealer. Both were convicted because of
drugs charges. The title is a term applied to the fashion and cultural scene which emphasised the
young, the new and the modern. It was a period of optimism and hedonism, and a cultural
revolution. The artist experimented with it to produce it in different formats and media: oil painting,
acrylic, screen printing on canvas. Vibrant colours and bold outlines were used to grab the
attention instantly. However, Richard Hamilton tested this through dialogue with other media
(photography, advertising, architecture) and delved into the genres portrait, still life or landscape.

David Hockney

David Hockney was born in 1937 in England. He was a painter, photographer, and stage designer
whose works were characterized by economy of technique, a preoccupation with light, and a
realism derived from Pop art and photography.

A Bigger Splash (California 1967)

It depicts a swimming pool beside a modern house, disturbed by a large splash of water created
by an unseen figure that has apparently just jumped in front of a diving board.

It shows a typical California day – warm and sunny, with a cloudless blue sky. In the background,
there are two palm trees over a large house, with a flat roof and large sliding glass doors. In front
of it there is an empty director's chair on a wide pink patio. The sun is high in the sky. In the
foreground, a yellow diving board leads the viewer's gaze towards the centre of a large swimming
pool, where water captures the moment right after someone has dived in. The diver is not visible,
presumably still under the water.

The painting was made using acrylic on a canvas. Hockney uses a limited palette. The canvas is
dominated by the strong vertical and horizontal lines of the trees, the building, and the edge of the
pool; it is divided evenly into the sky, building and patio in the upper half, and the pool and diving
board in the lower half. The calmness of the overall composition contrasts with the violent
explosion of water caused by the diver.

Conclusion

Although Pop Art was criticised for their admiration of banality and consumerism, the movement
quickly became popular and questioned the traditional standards of art.
IMPRESSIONISM

Impressionism marked the birth of modern painting. It was never consciously revolutionary; its
goal was simply to depict the immediacy of the world with complete fidelity.

The term impressionism describes impressionist paintings, which are flecked (pattern of dots) and
formless, as opposed to that which is linear and clearly silhouetted. The term also applies to an art
movement originated in the 1860s in France. Its existence was short; however, it accomplished a
revolution in the history of art.

The Impressionists did not have clearly defined principles; however, they were an association of
artists, who banded together to exhibit. They were interested in the objective recording of
contemporary life, trying to capture an 'impression' of what the eye sees at one particular moment.
They tried to capture the effects of light on varied surfaces, particularly in open-air settings, and
they used bright colours and sketchy brushwork that seemed shocking to traditionalists. By 1880
the Impressionist group began to dissolve and each painter pursued his own aesthetic and
principles.

Although Impressionists painted many subjects, landscape is considered the most typical theme.
Impressionists moved from realistic renderings to a more subjective form of expression. Many
artists worked outdoors (en plein air) and recorded in paint the effects of light and weather.

For impressionists the invention of collapsible metal tubes for oil paints was indispensable since
they often painted out-of-doors. There was a distinction between oil sketches made outdoors and
finished works painted in the studio. When they painted outdoors, they could capture the fleeting
effects of sunlight. Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and Eugène Boudin were landscape painters that
influenced strongly Impressionism.

Impressionism is distinguished by tiny, thin, yet discernible brush strokes and an open
composition. The fundamental focus of the impressionists was on the realistic representation of
light in its changing properties, commonplace subject matter, uncommon visual perspectives, and
the incorporation of movement as a key part of human perception and experience.

As a consequence of painting outdoors, there was a higher awareness of light and colour, as well
as the changing pattern of the natural world. Brushwork grew faster and more fragmented in order
to capture the ephemeral character of light.

Boudin, twenty years older than most of the impressionists, was among the few artists of his
generation to insist on painting in the open air, declaring three brushstrokes done outdoors to be
of greater value than days spent working in the studio. At times he was accompanied by the young
Claude Monet.

Though Boudin believed sincerity was achieved by painting directly from nature, he still made
adjustments to his paintings in the studio.

Eugène Boudin

When Boudin began to paint vacationers on the beaches of Normandy, his subject was
unconventional. Seascapes, often populated with small peasant figures or fishermen, still attracted
French painters in the mid-1800s. But Boudin's images, unlike those of other rustic genre scenes,
recorded a new phenomenon, the tourist with money and leisure time. Boudin seems to have been
a bit ambivalent about his subjects. At times he defended them, but he also dismissed them as
"gilded parasites," to insist that his true subjects were light and colour.

Claude Monet (1840-1926)

Claude Monet was a key figure in the Impressionist movement that transformed French painting in
the second half of the nineteenth century.

Claude Monet was born in 1840, in Paris, France.

His father wanted him to go into the family grocery store business, but Claude Monet wanted to
become an artist.

In 1845, His family moved to le Havre, Normandy where he would enter the Le Havre secondary
school of the arts in 1851.

On the beaches of Normandy, he met fellow artist Eugène Boudin who became his mentor.

Eugène taught him to use oil paints and introduced him to plein air painting. The term plein air
means out of doors and refers to the practice of painting entire finished pictures out of doors.

Monet found subjects in his immediate surroundings, as he painted the people and places he
knew best. His first wife, Camille, and his second wife, Alice, frequently served as models. His
landscapes chart journeys around the north of France and to London, where he escaped the
Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71.

Paris

When Monet travelled to Paris to visit The Louvre, he witnessed painters copying from the old
masters. Monet, having brought his paints and other tools with him, would instead go and sit by a
window and paint what he saw.

Techniques

Monet often worked directly on large-scale canvases out of doors, then reworked and completed
them in his studio. His quest to capture nature more accurately also prompted him to reject
European conventions governing composition, colour, and perspective.

Influenced by Japanese woodblock prints, Monet’s asymmetrical arrangements of forms

emphasised their two-dimensional surfaces by eliminating linear perspective and abandoning
three-dimensional modelling. He brought a vibrant brightness to his works by using unmediated
colours, adding a range of tones to his shadows, and preparing canvases with light-colored
primers instead of the dark grounds used in traditional landscape paintings.

Later life

In the 1910s and 1920s, Monet focused almost exclusively on the picturesque water-lily pond that
he created on his property at Giverny. Shortly after Monet died, the French government installed
his last water-lily series in specially constructed galleries at the Orangerie in Paris, where they
remain today.

For some critics, Monet’s late paintings of Giverny constituted a stark rupture with his previous art.
In works like The Japanese Footbridge, thick, tangled blazes of red, orange, and yellow were even
considered a symptom of failing vision. Nonetheless, the artist himself considered his landscapes
from this period a continuation of his decades-long effort to represent the wider world as it
appeared to him

Analysis of Water Lily Pond by Claude Monet

1899

oil on canvas

In 1893, Monet, purchased land with a pond near his property in Giverny, intending to build
something "for the pleasure of the eye and also for motifs to paint." The result was his water-lily
garden. The water garden became the main obsession of Monet’s later career, and the subject of
some 250 paintings.He would sit in the middle of it and paint it.

Monet had a never-ending interest in observing and painting that most elusive quality, light,
notably in the “Series” paintings, where he painted the same subject dozens of times, under
different light conditions.

Monet created a water lily pond crossed with a japanese-style bridge.

The pond was ideal for Monet’s continuing exploration of the ever-changing natural world.

In 1899, he began a series of eighteen views of the wooden footbridge over the pond, completing
twelve paintings that summer. His final series depicts the pond in a set of mural-sized canvases
where abstract renderings of plant and water emerge from broad strokes of colour and intricately
built-up textures.

The bridge

The bridge spans the width of the canvas, but it is cut off at the edges so that it seems to float
unanchored above the water, its shape reflected in a dark arch at the bottom of the picture.

The pond

The mass of floating water lilies provided a glorious range of colours and forms. Between the
leaves and flowers, the water itself could be seen. Its surface is full of complex shifting reflections
of the trees and rushes around the pond.

Perspective
The perspective seems to shift; it is as though we are looking up at the bridge but down on the
water lilies which float towards the distance. The vertical reflections of the trees provide a
counterpoint to the horizontal clumps of the lily pads.

Water lilies series

Water Lily Pond was among the 18 similar versions of the motif that he made in 1899–1900; their
common theme was the mingling of the lilies with reflections of other vegetation on the pool’s
surface.

In all of the "Water Lilies" paintings, Monet focuses on the surface of the water. He dispenses with
any representation of the land or sky, only showing their reflection in the water. These paintings
are typical with willows present only as a reflection. The sky, with its white clouds, is reflected in
the water, so the blue of the sky and the blue of the water are one. Only the presence of the water
lilies helps the observer to understand that this is a reflection.

Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies. 1899

Impression, Sunrise
1872

Oil on canvas

In 1872, he painted Impression, Sunrise (Impression: soleil levant) depicting a Le Havre

landscape. The picture is well-known for its subdued but entrancing hues, which show a peaceful
daybreak over a busy port city at the time Monet painted it. The bigger ships and barges are
scarcely visible against the early mist.

A few lone boats are prominently highlighted in the painting’s centre, alluding to a feeling of
simplicity that Monet either saw or desired.

When ”Impression, Sunrise” hung at its first exhibition in 1874, art critic Louis Leroy derisively
used the term “Impressionistic'', from the title of this painting, to describe Monet’s works. Critics
described the work presented in the show as “unfinished” and compared it unfavourably to
wallpaper. This term was quickly adopted by what were soon to be known as the Impressionist
painters, and the exhibition which included other works by Impressionist artists, was from then on
referred to as the “Impressionist Exhibition.”

Water lilies
1914-26

Oil on canvas, three panels

In the final decades of his life, Monet embarked on a series of monumental compositions depicting
the lush lily ponds in his gardens in Giverny. At the end of the nineteenth century, the painter had
envisioned a circular installation of vast paintings. He called them grandes décorations that would
envelop the viewer in an expanse of water, flora, and sky. This vision materialised in the form of
some large-scale panels, Water Lilies among the ones that Monet produced and continuously
reworked from 1914 until his death in 1926.

At this triptych’s centre, lilies bloom in a luminous pool of green and blue that is frothed with
lavender-tinged reflections of clouds. Thick strokes in darker shades seep into the left panel, while
on the right, sky and water are gently swallowed by an expanse of reddish-green vegetation. The
dense composition hovers at the threshold of abstraction, its lack of horizon creating an effect of
total immersion.
Vincent van Gogh

He was born in Zundert, located in the Netherlands on March 30th of 1853. He was the second
child in the family, as the first (also named Vincent) was a stillborn and did not survive. After
Vincent, more siblings came to be– including Theo, whom the artist would send letters to regularly
throughout his entire life.

Vincent led a directionless life full of uncertainty for quite a while, he wouldn’t really become an
artist until the age of 27– though he was a decent student who managed to get through
elementary school and was starting to get good marks in secondary, he left school for unknown
reasons and would never become a student again. His uncle would help him out quite a bit by
initially getting him to work as the youngest clerk at an art dealer. Alas, he would eventually
become disinterested in the inner workings of this despite his appreciation of art.

During his time with Goupil, the art firm, he would travel to London where he’d visit museums
regularly. These were the British Museum and the National Gallery, where the works he admired
included those by ‘peasant painters’ such as François Millet and Jules Breton. He also read
everything from museum guides and magazines to literature and poetry.

He would later be transferred to Paris, a time where Vincent became deeply religious– this is why
his letters to his brother Theo, from now on, would be full of Bible quotes and accounts of religious
services performed by him.

Being dismissed by Goupil eventually, Vincent started jumping from job-to-job… from
schoolmaster to bookseller to (attempted) student and lay preacher (where he would visit the sick,
read them Bible passages and help out).

He was once called the “Christ of the Coal Mines” in Borinage for his dedication to the community
there, having moved from Amsterdam after retrying studies, still intent on serving God. He’d give
away his possessions and sleep on the bed, trying to become one with the poverty found in the
mining regions. Though he failed, the fact his nickname survived shows he at least had some
impact on people.
He would finally find his calling to focus on art, even if he no longer had a paid job as Theo would
send him money from now on whenever he could.

Things wouldn’t get any easier, however. He’d move around, learn from multiple artists, fall in love
quite a few times, caused friction with his own family on several choices made, such as falling in
love with his cousin, as an example. One of the artists who helped him learn was his cousin-by-
marriage, the celebrated artist Anton Mauve, who taught him oil painting and watercolours.

For most of his life, he would be a ‘peasant painter’. He’d start sending his brother Theo his work,
in hopes that he would sell them, and any money he was sent could now be seen as “earned”
money– but the market for art was interested in colour, and Vincent’s works (for the moment) were
rather dark and grim in tones.

Once he moved to Paris with Theo (who worked for Goupil), he was introduced to the colourful
work of prominent modern artists like Claude Monet. Vincent van Gogh also got to know a new
generation of artists at Fernand Cormon’s studio, including Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Emile
Bernard.

This rush of ‘new’ inspired him to experiment, shifting from his darker pieces of art to using
brighter colours from here on out, and also led him to develop his own style of painting, with short
brush strokes. Likewise, his themes changed as well– moving away from the rural areas of old, to
cafés and boulevards, the countryside along the Seine and floral still lifes. He also tried out more
‘commercial’ subjects, such as portraits (with himself as the model, for models were expensive.)

However, after two years, he’d tire of the life in Paris as it seemed to be too much for him. He
sought for peace and inspiration in Provence, south of France.

Following a train journey that lasted a day and a night, he arrived on 20 th February 1888 in Arles, a
small town on the River Rhône.

Although the effort bore fruit, for Arles’ colorful landscapes and lifestyle pleased van Gogh, his
later attempts at a shared studio in the Yellow House, where he lived, led to tragedy. Initially
collaborating with Gauguin, fellow artist, in attempts to get more artists to come join him at the
Yellow House for collaborations, would turn to quarrels over their different styles– Vincent’s
anxiety over Gauguin leaving got the best of him, threatening his friend with a knife before cutting
off his own ear later that night in regret over what happened, wrapping it in a newspaper, and
presenting it to a prostitute in the red-light district– an incident popular enough for it to be reported
on. His brother Theo and Gauguin later visited him until he got well, but fearing more incidents
happening, van Gogh willingly and voluntarily admitted himself to Saint-Paul-de-Mausole
psychiatric hospital in Saint-Rémy in May of 1889.

Van Gogh spent one year in the mental hospital in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Despite his unstable
mental health, he was very productive: he made about 150 paintings in a year.

It was here where Van Gogh would paint one of his most famous works, and quite possibly, one of
the most famous landscapes ever painted.

Starry Night, analysis

 Arguably one of the most popular landscapes the
world has seen with its countless reproductions,
van Gogh’s “Starry Night” is often seen as the
late artist’s magnum opus (masterpiece) as it
may very well be the proper entry point into
Vincent van Gogh’s paintings, style and lifestyle
altogether– the culmination, we could say. As
stated previously, his style changed significantly
under the influence of Impressionism, becoming
lighter and brighter.

It was made in 1889 on a 92 cm by 73 cm

canvas with oil as a medium. Theoretically, it
falls under “Post-Impressionism”, a 1880s
movement from France which rejected
Impressionism’s naturalistic colours.

The painting itself depicts the view through the window of his sanatorium room at night where he
resided for a year after severing his ear. The image he saw had struck Van Gogh, as he would
later paint it by memory based on what he recalled from that night (in contrast to his usual work,
where he preferred to paint what was in front of him at the moment. This was one of the main
things which caused his fight with Gauguin.)

What draws attention, generally, is the namesake of the piece– the starry night
sky. Every feature of it is exaggerated with swirling strokes for the stars, the
crescent moon and the sky itself. The artist was aware that his Starry Night
composition was somewhat surreal and stylized and in a letter to his brother he
even referred to "exaggerations in terms of composition."

Besides the sky, there’s also a small town, below the hills in the horizon,
seemingly peaceful. Out of all the buildings present, the church stands the
tallest, but it pales in comparison to the other focus of the piece:

The massive, tall and dark structure that produces the effect of size, gives the
painting depth. It’s isolated, and the viewer is free to interpret it as to what it
might be. For instance, some have said it was mountains, others believed it to
be a giant tree, and many institutions agree that it is in fact a stylized cypress
tree.

The colour of the piece should be taken into account– Van Gogh's use of white and yellow creates
a spiral effect and draws attention to the sky. Apart from that, the choice of dark blues and
greens were complemented with touches of mint green showing the reflection of the moon. The
buildings in the centre of the painting are small blocks of yellows, oranges, and greens with a dash
of red to the left of the church.

The striking blue in The Starry Night is balanced by the orange of the elements spread throughout
the sky.
 When it comes to symbolism, there’s quite a
bit of it, as expected.

We already know Vincent van Gogh was a

religious person– he was dedicated to the
evangelization of those in poverty in his
younger years, and many believe this
endeavour is reflected in the eleven stars of
the painting as a possible reference to
Genesis 37:9.

And he dreamed yet another dream, and

told it to his brethren, and said… behold, I
have dreamed a dream more; and,
behold, the sun and the moon and the
eleven stars made obeisance to me.

Later research found out that the

dominant morning star in the painting is
actually Venus, as it would have shone
brightest at the time Van Gogh saw the
view from the sanatorium.

The supposed cypress tree, so tall and huge, seemingly links both heaven and earth as it rises
from the ground and reaches the sky– that, alongside the contrast between the bright sky and the
gloomy village, seem to indicate some intent on representing life and death, perhaps how Vincent
felt at the time, something linked to his eventual suicide.
The style of the swirling sky seems to also be inspired by the late-astronomer's work, William
Parson’s “Earl of Rosse” of the Whirlpool Galaxy.

In addition to this, the turbulent play of light and dark

in “Starry Night” can be compared to the mathematical
expression of turbulence in such natural occurrences
as whirlpools and air streams. It is believed that since
the artist created these particular artworks during
periods of extreme mental agitation, Van Gogh was
uniquely able to accurately communicate that agitation
using precise gradations of luminescence. It’d make
this piece solely unique not only to van Gogh’s work
and style, but to his mind.

The view, of course, isn’t totally realistic– Vincent van

Gogh’s mind is playing up the exaggerated looks, but in a way that seems both chaotic and
tranquil. It is what he saw, from an imaginary viewpoint, that one night before morning. It is that
peacefulness that brings about other interpretations on the piece; such as hope.

It seems that van Gogh was showing that even with a dark night such as this it is still possible to
see light in the windows of the houses. And with such shining stars filling the sky, there is always
something there to guide you. It seems that van Gogh had essentially found his heaven. He also
knew that in death he would be at peace and further portrays this by using bold colours in the
Starry Night painting.

Something curious about Starry Night, however, is that it

wasn’t the first of its kind. This is “Cafe Terrace at Night”,
painted earlier in 1888, also in Arles, with similar visuals
at play although nowhere near as intense as Starry
Night. Once more, we can notice the contrast between
the blues and the yellows, the lights casting shadows.

Quite similarly too, there was also “Starry Night over the
Rhone”, a piece very similar with key differences, such
as more realism over exaggeration, darker tones, and
the presence of human beings in the picture.
Vincent van Gogh would later on take his own life in 1890,
with much of his work finally becoming popular and
recognized post-mortem.

Conclusion

• Impressionism had a particular way of perceiving nature, not by trying to render perfectly what is
seen by the eye like a camera, but by emphasising the surprise it provokes and its radiance.

• Painting outside in front of the bright and shimmering colours of the landscapes and material
revolution with the appearance of lighter wooden easels and tubes of paint that allowed painters
and artists to leave their studios

• No mixed colours but juxtaposition with small touches