Last weekend in Amsterdam, I had the great pleasure of exploring the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam. I am definitely glad my hooligan friends and I actually got our hung-over butts out of bed to see this museum and many others (believe me, this was quite the feat). Not to be cliché, but I think Van Gogh's art is pretty damn cool. Again, not to be cliché, but Starry Night is one of my favorite paintings ever. After seeing many of Van Gogh's other works in his Amsterdam museum, I'd like to share a few more favorites I've discovered. I literally know nothing about art besides what I learned in my intro art history class I took senior year of high school (and, you know, senioritis), so here are some of my favorites based simply on my aesthetic first impressions.
This first one is called Avenue of poplars in autumn. Fall is by far my favorite season; it's when my birthday and Halloween are (my two favorite holidays), and I absolutely love fall weather and colors. The first day I step out of my house and the sun is beaming, but I still need a light sweater is the most joy-filled moment of my life because I know it's fall. The air just becomes clearer and the trees' leaves get that tie-dyed changing look and I fall in love. Fall is the only season where I am suddenly aware of the fact that time is passing and summer is slowly fading away. I like the shadows and the fall colors of this painting, and it brings me back to the joy I felt as a child when I knew that the day of unlimited candy and pumpkin carving was approaching.
Seascape near Les Saintes is another painting that stood out to me. I think the colors are so rich and I like how Van Gogh uses thick paint. The paint is almost tangibly thick. This image is extremely striking and visually pleasing, and when you get closer you can see that Van Gogh used a lot more colors than are initially apparent. I love how he signed the work in red at the lower left corner to off-set all the blue paint. This painting reminds me of all my summers in New Hampshire as a child and teen. I am thoroughly convinced that New England is the most beautiful place in the world during the summer, and I want to go back during summers when I'm old and have a family. When I was a kid, I would literally spend hours on end at New Hampshire's beautiful beaches collecting rocks, or catching crabs, or building little houses on the rocks with my little sister. And talk about another place with great weather; New Hampshire is beautiful (and relatively cool) in the summers. I have such a love for that place and it's fantastic ice cream and clam rolls and cute New England houses and fenced in yards.
Lastly, the painting I just had to love, was Van Gogh's Head of a skeleton with a burning cigarette. I love this painting for so many reasons, but mainly because it's just insanely badass. I was so close to buying a large poster of this for my room, but sadly I figured it wouldn't be able to fit in my suitcase. It's funny that this painting essentially is a "smoking kills" campaign wayyy before anyone knew that smoking was even bad for you. This online image doesn't really do the painting justice, in real life it's much more striking. But really, this one is just too cool.
Honestly, I had always written off Van Gogh as that guy-who-cut-off-his-ear-who-painted-starry-night-but-also-that-ugly-boring-painting-of-a-room, but I loved so many of his works that I saw in Amsterdam. We actually stayed at the museum for almost 3 hours. So, moral of the story? Van Gogh is tight, Van Gogh is tight.
Honestly, I had always written off Van Gogh as that guy-who-cut-off-his-ear-who-painted-starry-night-but-also-that-ugly-boring-painting-of-a-room, but I loved so many of his works that I saw in Amsterdam. We actually stayed at the museum for almost 3 hours. So, moral of the story? Van Gogh is tight, Van Gogh is tight.