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Home » Go See: Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night, at the Museum of Modern Art, now through January 5

Go See: Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night, at the Museum of Modern Art, now through January 5

September 30th, 2008

Night Cafe by Vincent Van Gogh
‘The Night Cafe’ (1888) by Vincent Van Gogh, via New York Times

Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night features nocturnal themes in the artist’s body of work, product of many sleepless nights contemplating the people, cityscapes and countrysides of France and Holland. ‘The Starry Night,’ one of his best known pieces, and the aesthetically- and thematically- related ‘Starry Night over the Rhone’ are among the 23 paintings and 10 works of paper on display at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Van Gogh’s fascination with the colors, forms and inhabitants of the night is palpable in the paintings, which all feature his signature bold colors and lines.

Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night: Through January 5, 2009
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night: MoMA site [MoMA]
MoMA Presents First Exhibition to Examine Van Gogh’s Nocturnal Landscapes and Interiors
[Artdaily]
Did Van Gogh Need More Sleep? Starlit Obsessions at MoMA Show [Bloomberg]
Van Gogh and the Colours of the Night, NY
[Financial Times]
Nocturnal Van Gogh, Illuminating the Darkness
[New York Times]

\'Landscape with Wheat Sheaves and Rising Moon\' by Vincent Van Gogh
‘Landscape with Wheat Sheaves and Rising Moon,’ (1889) by Vincent Van Gogh, via New York Times

The works in Colors range from interiors (’The Night Cafe’) to pastoral landscapes (’Landscape with Wheat Sheaves and Moon’), to representations of humble peasants sharing a meal (’The Potato Eaters’). Joachim Pissarro, the exhibition’s curator, on Van Gogh’s artistic relationship with the night:“Van Gogh’s night scenes offer rich layers of significations and associations. Some show the strong relationship that he perceived between the cycles of nature and those of rural labor. Others evoke poetic associations of the evening with either the vagaries of life in modern times or with profound metaphysical questions.” [via ArtDaily]

Gauguin\'s Chair by Vincent Van Gogh
‘Gauguin’s Chair’ by Vincent Van Gogh, via New York Times

Landscape at Twilight by Vincent Van Gogh
‘Landscape at Twilight’ by Vincent Van Gogh, via New York Times

The Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh
‘The Starry Night’
(1889) by Vincent Van Gogh via New York Times


The Potato Eaters by Vincent Van Gogh
‘The Potato Eaters’
(1885) by Vincent Van Gogh, via the New York Times

The Starry Night Over the Rhone by Vincent Van Gogh
‘Starry Night Over The Rhone’ (1888) by Vincent Van Gogh, via New York Times

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