Existing comment:
Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Late Degas:
Too often, the personal histories of Van Gogh and Gauguin have obscured the intensity, vision, and discipline that propelled them to exploit the potential of color, line, and form for emotional and symbolic effect. Van Gogh sought inspiration in the strong color and animating line of Japanese art, Gauguin in the primal power of myth. Van Gogh's brushstrokes became even more expressive, while Gauguin's Tahitian imagery became more symbolic, more darkly enigmatic.
Degas, it seems, older and trained in the classical tradition, could scarcely differ more. Yet the works in this room show him still experimenting into his eighties, with images that are as radical as any created by his younger, post-impressionist colleagues. |