The Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh
The
Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh (1889) was a very recognizable painting
that I seen throughout my life. It is LITERALLY sold everywhere. It is so
famous that “you can find it in most college dorm rooms” as Professor Caffey
says. The painting shows the outside view of his window, when he was being held
in a mental institution, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. The picture represents his
perspective of the outside world, and captures his anxiety towards nighttime,
in the form of visual art. The painting shows an extreme state of agitation,
but at the same time it is very soothing to the viewer, because of the calm
village painted below.
Viewing the painting, I am constantly
reminded of the Fibonacci spiral, which is “created by drawing circular arcs
connecting the opposite corners of squares in the Fibonacci tiling; this one
uses squares of sizes 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, and 34. This succession
approximates the golden spiral.” The twirling of the wind in the night sky,
depicted in Van Gogh’s art, can be compared to this mathematical equation. There
are some great movies out there that linked to this spiral, such as “The Di
Vinci Code”, but one in particular that reminds me of this painting is “Pi”.
Max Cohen, the main character who
suffers from cluster headaches, extreme paranoia, hallucinations, and social
anxiety disorder, believed that everything in nature can be understood by
numbers.
“One: Mathematics
is the language of nature. Two: Everything around us can be represented and
understood through numbers. Three: If you graph the numbers of any system,
patterns emerge. Therefore, there are patterns everywhere in nature.” -“Pi”
At some point in the movie, Max takes an
interest when he realizes that some of the number concepts Lenny, some Jewish
guy, discusses are similar to other mathematical concepts, such as the
Fibonacci sequence. This concept just blows my face away, especially after
seeing The Starry Night. The golden
spiral, that is said to be found in nature, is found in Van Gogh’s depiction of
night. It makes me wonder more of his perspective toward nature, and in my
eyes, Van Gogh can be compared to the character Max himself. Towards the end, Max’s
obsessive pursuit of ideas, lead him to take a power drill to the head, ending his
madness.
My opinions on Van Gogh before taking
ARTS 349, I had an idea of who Van Gogh was, but I never knew he had a few
mental problems. When I found out he cut his own ear, and mailed it to a
prostitute, I was like “WAHHHHH?!” Though Van Gogh’s art can be easily
recognized by most people today, his career was not as successful compared to
when he was alive.
“Pi”
IMBD description
Golden
Spirals and Fibonacci Spirals
A
reason for the Fibonacci Spiral in Nature. An Artist Theory)
Pi - The Golden Ratio
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