VAN GOGH: POETS AND LOVERS EXHIBITION REVIEW

3/5

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Had three ticket checks done before I could gain entry to the Van Gogh: poets and lovers exhibition at the national gallery. Which is a testament to the contemporary relevance of Van Gogh and his unwavering popularity. 

The exhibition was divided into a series of four different room. Each room was filled with a dozen or so Van Gogh paintings or sketches. There was a paper booklet provided which includes a short paragraph regarding each painting. As an Artist and Van Gogh enthusiast, It was awe inspiring seeing paintings I’d only ever seen online in real life. 

Van Gogh has a unique “dirty painting” method, where copious amounts of paint is applied to the canvas in varying amounts. This process is referred to as impasto, and you see it incessantly in his paintings. As a result, there is almost 3D quality to his work as the thick paint layers interact with the lighting. 

A lot of the paintings have a simplistic candid designs from which Van Gogh brings to life with his colour palette. He utilises a whirlpool of strokes in a manic manner to create vivid masterpieces. 

There are few soft tones, excessive detail or blending. Van Gogh opts for harsh contrast, jagged lines and crooked features. He achieves this style through wayward blotches and chunky paint patterns.

The paintings communicate Van Gogh’s struggles and his impoverished life. There is a strong symbolism of perseverance and the sanctity of artistic creativity outside conventional expectations. The paintings have an earthy and cold starkness depicting Van Gogh’s landscapes, people and objects.

Starry night over the rhone (1888)

We see the impesto method in this painting with the layers of quick and short brushstrokes spanning across the canvas. I really liked the gradient blend in the sky from a cool turquoise/cerulean blue at the centre of the sky towards a darker shade in the corners of the canvas. Once again, Van Gogh uses a choppy blending as opposed to blending the colour with a mop brush. As a result, you get the sense of a brewing storm. 

Van Gogh blends the yellow much more softly to create iridescent stars in the sky. Although a basic method, the result is a simplistically stunning skylight. As an amateur artist, it has never seemed to surprise me how a few splotches of yellow or white across a dark night sky in my own paintings creates a stunning skyline. 

Self-portrait (1889)

Definitely one of the most popular Van Gogh paintings is the self-portrait. I remember reading how Van Gogh was essentially the first person to invent the selfie as he had several paintings of his own profile. This was purely coincidence as he didn’t always have a muse to paint!

The picture portrays Van Gogh stoic, proud and representative of the infamous impressionist painter he would become posthumously. There are dark blue swirls in the background which reminds me of the blue hues you would find on fine porcelain or china. 

Van Gogh uses more varied shades of blue for his cloak which definitely catches your eye. Strongly symbolic of how he himself is a piece of his art and the mental sacrifices made for his paintings. 

A wheatfeild with cypresses (1889)

In a stark contrast to most of his other paintings, Van gogh goes for a much softer blending techniuqe especially with the whimsical and arabesqure cloud shapes. It is very similair to the burgundy cloud visible in Michelango's "the creation of adam" and the perculial shapes painted by surrealist Salvador Dali. Upon first inspection, the surrouding fauna and cypress tree appear still and uneffected by the swirling clouds behined. However, on closer inspection there are swirling shapes and curves branches that provoke a sense of light and movement which impressionist were so good at portraying.

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