In The Act of Creation Arthur Koestler wrote that Einstein’s space is no closer to reality than Van Gogh’s sky. Both the scientist and the artists impose order on chaos. There is no glory in absolute truth: glory is only to be found in the mere act of creation itself. Thus Van Gogh’s artistic endeavour to depict reality based on his own personal frame of reference and sense of observation is no less spectacular than Einstein’s special theory of relativity, which reconciled mechanics with electromagnetism.
One of Van Gogh’s most renowned paintings is The Starry Night, which since 1941 has been in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. This canvas has been widely hailed as his magnum opus, although the artist himself was possibly not so much over the moon with this work. In a letter to his brother Theo from Saint-Rémy he wrote: ‘The first four canvases are studies without the effect of a whole that the others have . . . The olives with white clouds and background of mountains, also the moonrise and the night effect, these are exaggerations from the point of view of arrangement, their lines are warped as that of old wood.’ Still…just like The Potato Eaters or The Sunflowers it has become a classic, inspiring a.o. French composer Henri Dutilleux's orchestral work Timbres, Espace, Mouvement, American poet Anne Sexton’s poem 'The Starry Night', and last but not least Don McLean's song ‘Vincent’. Incidentally, as pointed out by Simon Singh in his book Big Bang, The Starry Night has striking similarities to a sketch of the Whirlpool Galaxy, drawn by Lord Rosse 44 years before van Gogh’'s work.
And now The Starry Night is kind of the centerpiece of Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night, an exhibition on show at MoMA from September 21, 2008 until January 5, 2009. It’s a joint effort with the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, where the exhibition can also be seen from February 13–June 7, 2009. As the press release mentions Vincent van Gogh attempted, throughout his career, the paradoxical task of representing night by light. The exhibition is devoted to Van Gogh’s nocturnal and twilight paintings and drawings and will present new insight into his depictions of night landscapes, interior scenes, and the effects of both gaslight and natural light on their surroundings.
Van Gogh considered evenings and nights to be excellent times for moments of creativity and reflection. He loved to work at night, and now you don't have to stay up late to see the fruits of his nocturnal efforts.
Subscribe