The focus of the paper is to make a comparison and highlight contrasts between Van Gogh's 'Starry Night' and Salvador Dali's 'Persistence of time'. While Gogh's theme formed the basis of expressionism in twentieth century, Dali initially became a leader of the Surrealist movement and later on developed interests in psychology and science, both movements influencing their beliefs and formal approaches in distinctive ways.
Van Gogh
Vincent Van Gogh, the post-Impressionist artist, is the most famous and well-renowned of all modern Dutch painters. He started painting in his last ten years of life, however failed to sell any of his nine hundred paintings during his life. His drawings and oil paintings are now regarded as one of the best known and most expensive art-works in the world. Most of his pictures can easily be recognized from the broad brushstrokes of thick impasto paint. It was applied by Van Gogh like a sculptor slapping clay on to a relief. Among his most influential models of 'Expressionism' his masterpieces comprise; 'The Starry Night, The Potato Eaters, and various sunflowers' along with many self-portraits. He left a huge collection of almost nine hundred paintings and more than one thousand sketches and drawings, most of them painted in his last years. (Thomson, 2008)
Theme of Van Gogh and Expressionism
During his two-year stay in Paris, Impressionism existed as a high-fashion in the artistic circles. Vincent absorbed most of their methods and started developing his distinctive way of art. He changed his brushwork and his vision became less traditional while his tonalities lighter. This style of 'post-impressionist' sparkled in masterpieces like 'Self-Portrait' and 'Portrait of Pere Tanguy'. Gogh's formal distortions as well as humanistic concerns made him a famous and pioneer of 20th century expressionism. Expressionism was an artistic movement that focused on expression of the experience by the artist. The movement of expressionism traces its origins to the decade of 1880; however it did not transformed into a distinctive style until the year 1905. Gogh is regarded as the most significant forerunner of Expressionism who exaggerated natural appearances to express the terrible passions of humans.
Gogh was unknown at the time of his death; however his reputation swiftly grew after that and his entire work made a huge impact at several exhibitions in the early years of the twentieth century. His initial retrospective after the start of twentieth-century was in Paris in 1901 at the Galerie Berhheim-Jeune. This exhibition along with the exhibition at the Salon des Independants in the year 1905 were significant in the development of Fauvism. In the same year, a huge exhibition of Vincent's work was held in Amsterdam. His influence then travelled to reach England with the first Post-Impressionist exhibition of RogerFry in 1910. He was also the leading artist at the Sonderbund exhibition in the year 1912 and was also represented at the Armory Show in 1913 at New York. (Thomson, 2008)
Starry Night and Style of Van Gogh
The 'Starry Night' is considered as the most famous oil painting of Van Gogh. It shows a typical moonlit scene in Saint-Remy asylum's neighborhood where he stayed for more than a year during his last period of life. It is pertinent to mention that a comparison of Starry Night has been made to a photograph of a star branded as V838 Monocerotis that was taken in 2004 by the Hubble telescope. The clouds of gas encircling the star are similar to the swirling patterns used by van Gogh in this painting. 'Starry Night' is regarded as the most famous images in modern cultures. It is also considered as one of the most replicated as well as sought after prints. In real sense, there are many distinctive aspects that intrigue those viewing this image. Each factor impacts every person in a different way. The painting shows a night sky in which stars ablaze with their luminescence, swirling clouds covering sky, and a bright crescent moon. Even though, the characteristics are overstated and exaggerated, the scene provides the viewer a feeling of comfort. Viewer's eyes roam about the painting, following curves and eventually creating a visual dot to dot along with stars. It is this movement that keeps the viewer engaged and involved in the painting. (Thomson, 2008)
There is a small town below the hills of the horizon and a peaceful essence is conveyed from the structures. The cool dark colors used by Gogh along with fiery windows, in fact, remind its viewer the memories flowing from the childhood years filled with imagination of the night-scene and dark starry skies. The focal-point of the town is the steeple of the church overshadowing smaller buildings.
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