Lauren Soth is working throughout his entire article to express and prove Van Gogh’s intentions and therefore Van Gogh’s agony as the meaning behind his masterpiece, Starry Night. Soth’s thesis claims the painting was intended to console, but also another attempt at a failed painting “Agony in the Garden” which was meant to be imaginative, but based on conceptual history. At first his thesis seemed too bold, although arguable. By hiding his opinions and focusing on tangible evidence such as a solid visual analysis, powerful biographical details, and letters written by Van Gogh himself, Soth’s seemingly exaggerated opinion transforms into an insightful and well-supported thesis.
An isolated look at Soth’s organizational style shows it is concealing his opinions. Instead of having a few paragraphs categorized and separated, he limits the number of theories and changes it into a logical conclusion from verifiable evidence. One of the first examples in his article is the section called conceptual history. The topic sentence expresses his belief that Van Gogh was preoccupied with the idea of painting the night sky. He states facts about the letters Van Gogh wrote and later gives his reader the actual letter as proof. This style works by making the reader take his belief as fact instead of interpretation because of how logically his interpretation follows. This technique is powerfully persuasive and highlights the argument’s form in each paragraph as one of his key strengths to back up his thesis.
Another way the organization strengthens his argument is by having clear topic sentences all supporting Soth’s thesis. These topic sentences are usually interpretations, but as explained in the previous paragraph, very well-supported. This...
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...that extra push to at least mention this potential prejudice and prove he was aware of these connotations.
To the reader, the article is both incredibly gratifying and frustrating, especially with the final line of the article: “At its most profound level, the Starry Night is Van Gogh’s Agony.” The cockiness of this statement at first read seems pompous. The idea that a masterpiece could be reduced to something so simple was disturbing. However, through the organizational style, overwhelming facts, examples in the artist’s own words, and linking it to Agony in the Garden; the idea of unsubstantiated snobbery is dismissed. So much so that vexation is replaced with a sort of admiration around an extremely well thought out and passionately provoking conclusion.
Works Cited
Soth, Lauren. "Van Gogh’s Agony."
The Art Bulletin Vol. 68, No, 2 (1986): 301-313.
The organization of the argument of this paper is not particularly imaginative since this writer “lists” elements in a strictly sequential order, but he or she demonstrates familiarity with a wide range of documents and concepts of the Reader while working closely with the specific language of the document he or she is presenting.
The paining ‘Starry night’ was made when Van Gogh was in a mental asylum after he had an episode that resulted in him cutting of his own ear. The painting depicts the view from his asylum room, which Bennett could incorporate into his feeling of being trapped in a society that doesn’t accept him.
“There are no ghosts in the paintings of Van Gogh, no visions, no hallucinations. This is the torrid truth of the sun at two o’clock in the afternoon.” This quote that Antonin Artraud, stated from, Van Gogh, the Man Suicided by Society, explains the way in which Van Gogh approached his artwork. He believed in the dry truth and as a result his work was remarkably straightforward in the messages that he portrayed. While visiting Paris, France this past April, I was fortunate enough to have visited Musée d’Orsay, a museum that contains mostly French art from 1848-1914 and houses a large collection of impressionist and post-impressionist masterpieces and 19th century works from the Louvre [The Oxford Companion to Western Art]. I was also favored in having the opportunity to see the Vincent Van Gogh/Antonin Artaud exhibition, The Man Suicided by Society. The exhibition captured Antonin Artaud’s text about Van Gogh’s, “exceptional lucidity that made lesser minds uncomfortable,” or better known as his mental illness that had a major effect on his artwork [Musee d’Orsay]. In this exhibition, Vincent Van Gogh’s works visually present his life experience having spent 9 years in a mental institution and the way his imbalanced mind played a direct role on the outcome of his artwork. The darkness of Vincent Van Gogh’s illness that had a major impact on his art, was a form of expressionism which led to a collection of works that both told his life story, and later, led to his own suicide.
In 1888, Van Gogh painted his Bedroom in Arles, while he was living in his famous yellow house. The objects depicted in the painting, namely his bed, two chairs and a table, all seem like they are tilted downwards, and the entire perspective seems rather strange. Indeed, after moving to the South of France, the artist’s style changed remarkably as he started drifting away from impressionism. H...
Many people may look at the same painting and all come away with their own understanding. Every person has their bias and preconceptions that will influence their personal experience. In this paper we will discuss how Anne Sexton described in a short poem her experience of viewing Vincent Van Gogh’s painting The Starry Night. We will observe how Anne Sexton’s poem based on Van Gogh’s painting speaks about death in darkness as the painting seems to emphasise the light in the darkness.
The life span of 37 years saw Vincent Willem van Gogh (Vincent) in creating beautiful works he dearly loved. Painting was an avenue, which allowed him to express his inner thoughts or vent his struggles. My decision to research on Vincent’s painting, Starry Night (1889) came with the inspiration from Don Mclean’s Song, Starry Starry Night where his lyrics spoke about Vincent’s life that further intrigued me in writing this paper.
... the 20th century vogue in romanticized psychological biography. Who knows of how many other great paintings he could have completed in the following years. Although his life was cut short, Vincent van Gogh has since been recognized as one of the great geniuses of modern art. He was clearly one of the greatest postimpressionism painters of all time.
She uses sources from researchers and historians from different areas of study. Some art historians she quotes from include Fredick Antal, Fritz Novotny and A M Hammacher whom explains Van Gogh’s artwork based on his emotions and feelings. She also quotes researchers such as doctors, philosopher like Karl Jaspers, Rey and Peyron as well as writers such as Meyer Schapiro who tries looking at his works on a psychological level. The quotes she takes are relatively long and can take up as much as half a page and are quotes which she later disregards and argues that it is incorrect. By doing this, she is proving her point that she is right and those researchers have to look deeper into the meaning.
Painted by Vincent Van Gogh during a final burst of activity in Auvers before his suicide in July, Houses at Auvers features many of the characteristic elements typical of Van Gogh; the experimentation with color, texture, and thick brush strokes. This painting depicts the view and landscape in early summer, highlighting the patchwork of houses and the rolling greenery. Van Gogh’s unique, thick brush strokes lead the eyes through the painting, create texture and patterns and also highlight and shadow objects in the early summer sun, while his experimentation with color creates contrast and a bright, vibrant image.
Vincent Van Gogh never gave up his style and insight in his early work compared to his later work. I will discuss the comparison of the Potato Eaters and Starry Night and even though there are obvious differences, the core of his passion and eccentricities can be seen.
he artwork I chose to analyze is The Starry Night (June 1889) by Vincent Van Gogh.I
Vincent van Gogh’s development in stylized representations of nature, created by the application of dark colors, bold lines, and thick paint all show an expressionistic view of the natural world as seen through the eyes of the artist. While we will never find a definite answer for whether or not Vincent van Gogh intended for Wheat Fields with Crows to be any indication of his suicide, we continue to draw on conclusions of what this painting really meant. Even though we can say with certainty that this was not Vincent van Gogh’s last painting, the subject matter and formal elements suggest that it probably was - intended or not - some indication of van Gogh’s unhappiness.
In this essay will be talking about and comparing between the traditional painting Starry night by Vincent Van Gogh and the digital movie poster for Midnight in Paris designed by the company Cardinal Communications USA. Starry Night is an artwork that was painted in 1889 in an asylum at Saint-Remy-de-Provience, France while the Midnight in Paris poster is digitally made somewhere in the USA by someone in that company sometime in 2010. While both these artworks are very different, they have some similarities.
Bogard even makes America believe the long run generations: “In a world full with electric-light bulb...how would Gogh have given the planet his ‘starry night’? World Health Organization is aware of what this vision of the night sky should inspire in every people, in our kids or
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, by James Joyce, exemplifies the model of art it proposes as it also offers the reader on how to read that very art. Following the main character, Stephen Dedalus, through life, Joyce uses Stephen’s immediate perception to convey how an artist views the world. The reader witnesses Stephen encountering everyday aspects of life as art—the words of a language lesson as poetry or the colors of a rose as beautiful. Through Stephen’s voyage and words, Joyce introduces the theory that “beauty” as a label for an object is not born from the actual physical object itself, but rather lies within the process one goes through when encountering the object. Joyce’s theory is also experienced by the reader as he or she encounters Stephen’s perceptions as well as the beauty of the poetic language and vivid description within Joyce’s narrative. The rhythmic patterns and stylistic sentences create a multitude of authorial voices that blend at various points in the novel involving Joyce, Stephen, and the reader.