Vincent Van Gogh's Masterpiece Starry Night: A Reflection of Hope and Healing

"Starry Night" is an artwork that is recognized worldwide and may be reflected in forms of towels, magnets, coffee, and mugs. Vincent introduced this painting in Saint-paul-de Mausole to enable the patients to obtain freedom in the medical service care that is Gogh hospital. Vincent was having epileptic fits that is paranoia and was provided with a studio as well as private room where he started his painting and reading (Richardson et al. 389). Eventually, he began suffering from hallucinations where he wanted to commit suicide as a result of depression. The "Starry Night" panting indicated the natural versus unusual and dream versus reality. The artwork stated how religious need to mature spirituality since he painted trees, sky, and hills as a manifestation of divine and heavens. Hence, this essay focuses on "Starry Night" as an example of a painting that portrays contemporary visual cultural work.

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Fig 1: Gogh, Vincent van: The Starry Night. Obtained from https://cdn.britannica.com/78/43678-050-F4DC8D93/Starry-Night-canvas-Vincent-van-Gogh-New-1889.jpg

Descriptions

"Starry Night" consists of the sky, which has a color that resembles the clouds, moon, and stars. The bending cypress tree has branches that seemed curved where the trees indicate the inflexibility of the city, showing the unnatural nature of constructions (Kotzamani 221). The work came from the imaginations, which depict society's way of living. Starry Night is divided into essential parts that are the sky, which is termed as divine, unreal, and beyond human effort to reach because it is above the cypress trees, and hills. The next part is the village, which separates heaven from where most churches are located. This division of artwork needs creativity and knowledge associated with design or architecture. So, the artwork intended to convey the work of God to the people and the importance of the divine. Also, the painting enabled the patients to obtain freedom in the medical service care that is Gogh hospital. Therefore, the art reflects the biblical scriptures where God created heavenly bodies such as the moon, stars, and sun.

"Starry Night" is useful in contemporary visual cultural work because it was painted following the Van Gogh day, which depicted different weather conditions such as moonrise, sunrise, wind, and overcast days. The artist worked from observation based on his views and likeness that engulfed his nations. The purpose of painting is to portray different weather conditions that ranges from light changes, that is dark storm and summer sun clouds. Van Gogh was filled with challenges when he tried to convey the message through artwork. "Starry Night" is a prominent painting since it possesses a unique style through the indication of poetry such as fiction, CD-ROMs, and song. So, the picture followed the memory and knowledge associated with Vincent's preference.

Vincent Van Gogh tells his place and time because his work was recognized due to color, emotion, and beauty following the 20th century of artwork. Von Gogh, as well as two brothers that are Theo, played a crucial part in supporting his work of art. Irrespective of financial constraints, Van acquired education, where he was forced to leave teaching and began working as an art dealer in place of Hague. Thus, Van Gogh understood both German, English, native Dutch as well as French.

Cultural Significance

I critique "Starry Night" because it describes the view that points the window on the eastern side of the asylum room. The artwork was gathered in modern museum from 1941 following the event of Van Gogh (Pauwels 111). The painting indicated different opinions depending on multiple weather conditions such as moonrise and sunrise. Also, "Starry Night" is an indication of oil on canvas, which explains western culture. Von Gogh wanted to indicate his creativity and skills of how painting could reflect social or cultural lives. "Starry Night" expresses culture in connection to visual images. Various academic fields such as art history, cultural studies, critical theory as well as anthropology incorporate this painting to educate people on purpose of artwork. Different individuals' views Vincent Van Gogh as prominent impressionist artist who suffered from mental disorder in his life. Besides, I critique Von Gogh work because it it lacked previous studies or researchers to support his work as it originated from imaginations (Demos 100). I believe every artwork should be accompanied by various scholars and statistical evidence that proofs the reason from painting. However, the work contributes to both cultural and commercial where today's artists are emulating the work in the financial industry.

Besides, the "Starry Night" is the interpretation of religion, which portrayed isolation and insanity. The reason associated with Van Gogh painting is appreciated and famous because it indicate adverse emotions that inspired artwork where the feelings showed star lights unlike dark landscape. Van Gogh was religious who served as missionary and preached the message of God. In the artwork, the stars and moon in the night sky are engulfed by halos of light whereas church steeple manifests biblical verses such as Genesis. According to the painting, in Genesis, Joseph tells the detractors or brothers regarding his dream to receive respect and recognition for his work (Pauwels 111). Therefore, "Starry Night" has meaning in contemporary society following the painting in 1889 because it portrays the religious aspects. However, Van Gogh died as a disrespectful and poor artist, although he pioneered many painters even today.

The Success of the Message

"Starry Night" played vital roles in the community as well as people as it influences social structures, cultural identity, cultural environment, and development. It touched young individuals on various disciplines such as engineering, communication, architecture and technology. From industrial revolution, design has attempted to shape the life of persons in connection to technology and information. Everything, people experience today like car, cup and map are conceived through architectural. So, this painting has promoted respect, tolerance, beliefs and country identity. Also, from Van Gogh, today's artists are busy painting images that convey the work of God. For example, in catholic ministries, the current painters include various designs that speak God's word as well as their servants like Jesus' crucification (Rodriguez et al. 145). Van Gogh has also inspired young artists in society today, where they are nurturing their talents to convey the message visually in the culture or society. People acquire encouragement because irrespective of the challenges, one can achieve his or her dream. For instance, Von Gogh suffered hallucinations, where he developed depression and eventually wanted to commit suicide. Despite the problems, he succeeded in his work of the artist because he desired to communicate a biblical message to the culture visually.

Conclusion

"Starry Night" is an artwork that is recognized worldwide and may be reflected in forms of towels, magnets, coffee, and mugs. The "Starry Night" panting indicated the natural versus unusual and dream versus reality. The artwork stated how religious need to mature spirituality since he painted trees, sky, and hills as a manifestation of divine and heavens. Various academic fields such as art history, cultural studies, critical theory

as well as anthropology incorporate this painting to educate people on purpose of artwork. Therefore, "Starry Night" has meaning in contemporary society following the art in 1889 because it portrays the religious aspects.

Works Cited

Demos, T. J. "Between rebel creativity and reification: For and against visual activism." Journal of Visual Culture, vol.15, no.1, 2016, pp: 85-102. https://doi.org/10.1177/1470412915619459

Kotzamani, Marina. "Under the Starry Night: Darkness, Community and Theatricality in Iannis Xenakis's Mycenae Polytopon1." Theatre in the Dark: Shadow, Gloom, and Blackout in Contemporary Theatre, 2017, pp: 221-43.

Pauwels, Luc. "'Participatory' visual research revisited: A critical-constructive assessment of epistemological, methodological, and social activist tenets." Ethnography, vol.16, no.1, 2015, pp:95-117. https://doi.org/10.1177/1466138113505023

Richardson, Bradford A., et al. "Neuroanatomical interpretation of the painting starry night by Vincent van Gogh." Neurosurgery, vol.81, no.3, 2017, pp: 389. https://doi.org/10.1093/neuros/nyx406

Rodriguez Estrada, Fabiola Cristina, and Lloyd Spencer Davis. "Improving visual communication of science through the incorporation of graphic design theories and practices into science communication." Science Communication, vol.37, no.1, 2015, pp: 140-148. https://doi.org/10.1177/1075547014562914