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Outsiders And Outsider Art

Decent Essays

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 before entering the field of art. Since outsider artists have no formal training in visual arts, their 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 …show more content…

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 bright and the land dark. 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 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 experienced with different kinds of color, lines, and form. Similarly, Van Gogh experimented with different colors and styles. Since the post-impressionist artists were making paintings that were different, they were self-taught; also known as outsider

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