[New York Peasant by Wilfrid: September 19, 2008]
"The Colors of the Night" is what MOMA calls this small fall show of about twenty Van Gogh paintings, and a couple of works on paper. And it's a misnomer, frankly.
Throughout his career, the website tells you, Van Gogh "attempted the paradoxical task of representing night by light". Well, he surely did that in several paintings - and here are the most famous: "Starry Night" and "Starry Night over the Rhone" (am I imagining things, or does the MOMA wall-sign say Rhine?).
In most of these works, however, Van Gogh is doing something quite different. Either he is representing interiors at night ("The Potato Eaters", "The Night Café"), lit by candles or lamps. Or he is painting sunsets. Every work in the first room of the show depicts a sunset: the sun is everywhere. Call me a pedant - it won't be the first time - but that is not the same as painting the night.
The next point one might make, is that there is no evident connective thread in his manner of painting night (or otherwise dark) scenes. His technique developed in startling fashion, from the quietly realistic early landscapes to the violently painterly late masterpieces. And this development is consistent, whether he's depicting a starry sky or a sunflower. I am sure there's a curatorial essay in the catalog to put me straight on this, but in two visits using only my eyes, the point of the exhibition eluded me.
But are there some good paintings and drawings here? Well, yes of course there are. "Starry Night", the Rhone picture, "The Potato Eaters", "The Sower" - these are famous, dramatic works. You might think you've seen them before, and that's probably because you have. MOMA owns, at least, "Starry Night".
I did enjoy a controlled drawing of a café terrace, which was not familiar to me. It was interesting to see his tiny sketches of paintings included in his manuscript letters to his brother. The stand-out for me, though, was a small canvas called "Stevedores in Arles". It has a rare simplicity. The laboring figures are picked out economically in black paint against a rough horizon. The light of the setting sun, a few streaks of paint, simply explodes from the picture. It's the Van Gogh effect pared down, free of psychodrama, and very impressive.
But oh, the crowds. And I say that having been to a pre-opening reception and a members' preview. The show is in a relatively small series of rooms on the second floor. The cattle pens are ready, timed tickets are required, and you'll be standing in line like it's Shake Shack. It might be easier to bide your time and fly to Madrid to see the stevedores painting at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza.
Follow the rules right here.
