Van Gogh

Yesterday morning, I did not have class and thought it would be a great time to explore the city and visit a museum.  I decided that I would go to the Complesso Del Vittoriano to see the art exhibition of Vincent Van Gogh: Timeless Country - Modern City.  It has been on display since October 8, 2010 and will be ending next week.  I am so glad I am in Rome as an art history and architecture major and was able to see it.

The exhibition looks at the entire life work of the Dutch artist Van Gogh and contain 70 pieces from him.  In addition, there are other artist's works among Van Gogh's, like Pisarro, Gauguin, and Millet, who inspired many of his paintings.  It was amazing to see the inspirations next to Van Gogh's work.

One of my housemates, Alex, decided to come with me to the exhibit.  Because the text panels were all in Italian, we decided to get an English audio tour.  I always laughed at the people who would walk around a museum with those silly headphones in their ears listening to an expert discuss a specific painting.  I couldn't believe I was now one of them!  There were many Italians looking at Alex and me funny because we were using an audio tour.  It could have been because we decided to share an audio tour device and put two headphones in it.  We kept pulling each other around the exhibit, sometimes pulling out the other's headphones out of the device.  It's hard because in no way would I normally use an audio tour because I like analyzing a work for myself and reading the text panels, yet I don't fully understand the Italian language just yet.  I do believe though that I have a new perspective on audio tours.  The one on Van Gogh gave historical background that I would otherwise not be able to know from just looking at a painting.

The Drinkers or the Four Ages of Man by Van Gogh

Van Gogh is a Post-Impressionist painter who lived from 1953 to 1890.  During his short life (he died at age 37) he had many different styles of painting.  The main part of the exhibition focuses on Van Gogh's love of depicting the dichotomy between rural and urban life.  There were no Van Gogh Sunflowers, Starry Night, or Still-Life, however, I was able to see many paintings of his that usually part of private collections.

One of my favorite paintings in the exhibit was The Drinkers or The Four Ages of Man (1890).  It depicts the four ages of man all partaking in the same activity.  This painting directly reference Honore Daumier's woodcut.  However, Van Gogh's use of vivid color and whimsical brushstrokes modernizes the subjects and places them in the industrial nature of the time.

I would have loved to see some of his paintings he composed right before his death, yet that was not within the scope of the exhibit.

At Piazza del Campidoglio

After the exhibit I continue to do some sightseeing of Rome and made my way from the Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II to Piazza del Campidoglio, Piazza Navona, and then Campo dei Fiori.  And I did this all before my 4pm class!

Statue of Marcus Aurelius