Outsider Vs Outsider Art

Every piece of artwork tells a story. Artists can be categorized into two categories: Insiders and Outsiders. In the modern era of art, outsider art has become much popular. Outsider art is art created by outsider artists. Outsider artists are self-taught and have little to no experience prior to entering the field of art. Since outsider artists have no formal training in visual arts, their art style is unrecognizable. One of the most popular outsider artists was Vincent Van Gogh.

Vincent Van Gogh did not go to study art from anyone nor did he go to an art institution. Van Gogh was born in the Netherlands, but when he started to develop an interest in art, he moved to Paris to stay with his brother, Theo, who was an art dealer. Van Gogh started

He made The Starry Night in his room at the asylum. The Starry Night is based on the view Van Gogh saw from his room. The Starry Night displays a small village in the backdrop of the night sky with circles of white and yellow light, which represent the stars and the moon. The village has a church in the center and it is surrounded by mountains. The majority of the painting is done in shades of blue. The tone of the painting is luminous in the sky and dark on the ground. The focal point of the painting is the sky, since the viewers’ eye directly focuses on the bright colors in the sky rather than the dark colors on the ground. The vanishing point is to the left of the church towards the mountains. The viewer’s point of view is from the above because it seems like the village is seen from a bird’s eye view. From looking at the painting, it is visible that an impasto style of art has been used, since a thick layer of textured paint can be noticed. The circular brushstrokes have a sense of rhythm, which creates an illusion of the painting being in motion. A cypress tree can also be seen in the painting, which seems flame-like. According to the Museum of modern art, the tree can be seen as a connection between the land and sky, with life represented by land and death represented by the sky. In addition, cypress trees are typically found in a graveyard, which depicts that Van Gogh was trying to show the tree as a connection

One interpretation is that Van Gogh depicts land as sad and the sky as happy. Van Gogh might be trying to say that it is impossible to escape death and death is better than life as he painted the sky in bright colors and the land in dark colors. Since Van Gogh was mentally unstable during the time The Starry Night was painted, he glorified death more than life. In his letter to his brother Theo, Van Gogh wrote, “I should not be surprised if you liked the Starry Night and the Ploughed Fields, there is a greater quiet about them than in the other canvases.” This quote by Van Gogh shows that he was very depressed and alone when he painted The Starry Night. Another interpretation is that, Van Gogh shows a sense of hope as the bright stars shine on the dark landscape. Some houses in the village have lights, so Van Gogh might be trying to depict that no matter how dark and gloomy life is, there is always light to guide life in the right direction. The Starry Night is often regarded as a post-impressionist masterpiece. Post-impressionist artists did not do naturalistic paintings, but rather experimented with different kinds of color, lines, and form. Similarly, Van Gogh experimented with different colors and styles. The post-impressionist artists were making different paintings because they were self-taught; also known as outsider