Comment by garyrob | Hacker News Reader

Comment by garyrob | Hacker News Reader

The FAQ on that site has an entry for "Where is ‘The Starry Night’?" and its answer is at Museum of Modern Art in NYC.

Where it happens that I saw it a few weeks ago, as part of a big Van Gogh exhibition with many of his paintings.

I have to say that if you have a chance to go to that, or to another Van Gogh exhibition, I really recommend it.

From what I understand, not everyone resonates with his work. In fact I believe I saw a critical post on HN some time ago from someone who mentioned having "art students". I'm cynical enough to think they may have been middle school students because I don't think there are many serious people in the art world today who don't love Van Gogh.

And yet, I have a friend who, when the subject of the importance of preserving Van Gogh's work came up, said "They've never done anything for me!" so he couldn't see a reason why it mattered. And, of course, few loved his work while he was alive. Gauguin is even said to have even mocked some of Van Gogh's work in his own, even though they painted together for a time. (This is mentioned at the exhibition at MOMA and a relevant Gauguin is shown.)

So, YMMV. But, I had tears in my eyes from the beauty. Give Van Gogh a chance; his work may really come to mean something to you. It may not, but if it happens that you have yet to do so, it might be worth your while to give it some time, letting yourself be in a state of openness to the forms and colors.

I was never a fan of Van Gogh until I saw Starry Night in person at MOMA in NYC.

The thing that jumps out at me is literally the paint on the painting. There is a lot of height to it. The paint is so thick in sections that it sticks out far above the canvas that it can cause a shadow next to it. We tend to think of paintings as 2 dimensional but Starry Night is 3D and seeing it online or in a book or poster is not the same experience.

Since then I've seen about 10 other Van Gogh paintings in museums and I noticed this similar style in his paintings.

I had the same reaction to "Irises" at the Getty Museum in LA.

If a city near you has the Van Gogh Immersive Experience, go see it. It's quite impressive. Also, if they're your thing, it would be a great thing to see while on psychedelics.

What I like about Van Gogh's work, is the 'vibrant energy' in his paintings. But I had to experience his work in person to come to appreciate and perceive that. Prior to my first in-person experience with his paintings, I was in the 'meh' camp. It was a similar story for me with the work of Georgia O'Keefe.

https://www.moma.org/magazine/articles/462 has a nice page where they did a high res 3d scan + model of the painting that you can explore on there; the only thing missing I think is that you can't change the light source.

Thanks, this is really cool to zoom in and rotate about. I was doing something similar in the museum moving from side to side and squatting down and looking at the painting from different angles

Wow that really does show the texture!

Yes! Getting to see him up close really changed my mind on him. Obviously the transmitted colors of a screen aren't the reflected colors of light. But even quality print books aren't good because of the 3-D data that is missed.

He didn't just paint, he carved.

That was the thing that really 'made' Van Gogh for me. The en plain air mixing of globs very thick paints on the canvas took a lot of technical skill and mastery. I've tried doing it myself, and honestly, modern store-bought paints aren't up to the task. Getting the oil just right is really difficult. You have to have a consistency a bit south of the stiff-peaks phase of whipped eggs (sorry for mixing domains here, I don't know how else to describe it). Once you get a hold of your paints, you can start to learn how to do this on vertically held canvases, but it's still really difficult.

Then, you have to put the emotion and ease of use into your hand sweeps. His carving of the paint was obviously done in smooth motions with little going back for touch-ups. Just a glob, swooshed on, then mixing in the oil with another swooshing and beating, all globbed up on the canvas. Getting that energy and skill together is, again, really hard.

Seeing Van Gogh, in natural light, up close, really changed my mind on him. So much so that I've tried to replicate his paintings and have gotten no where close. A true master and innovator, in my mind.

My favorite thing to do when looking at paintings is to stand next to it and look at it from a steep side angle.

You can really see the texture and brushstrokes better, which as you said, brings a lot of life to the visual.

I saw it the other day. Its home is MoMA, but it is currently on loan at the Met through August 27th.

I just went the other day, and it was definitely worth seeing.

https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/van-gogh-cypresses

I’m in the “van Gough: meh” camp.

But one thing (of many) that I love about being alive is that not everybody has the same tastes, and I enjoyed reading your comment.

the yellow paint in "A Starry Night" is made with what was called "Indian Cow Yellow".

It's made by feeding cows nothing but mango leaves and dehydrating their urine to a paste.

Now you know...

If anyone's ever in the Netherlands for more than a couple of days, I'd highly recommend checking out the Kröller-Müller Museum. It has the second-largest collection of Van Gogh paintings [1], but also a sizeable number of paintings from the period leading up to his work, and following his work. It's really interesting to see how it fits in the larger developments in the painting world, and feels like his work is a crucial link in the transition from Rembrandt to abstract work like Mondriaan's.

[1] And while you're at it, visit the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam for the largest collection.

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