One Class: Art Appreciation 101
I remember being asked by my professor in literature class about my interpretation of Van Gogh’s Starry night over the Rhone painting. I’ve seen the painting before but never did I really scrutinize it the way I have to in an English class. The painting depicted an illuminated sky with the shining stars, the bright city lights, a calm river, a couple walking ashore and the two boats docked along the river bank. If only I could describe the painting then I have already answered the question. But to know the correlation of each visual imagery with one another, why bother? With no background knowledge as to why Van Gogh painted this while in a mental asylum , I dug deeper and let myself be enthralled by the painting for a moment. “What was on Van Gogh’s mind when he painted this picture?” I silently asked myself. “We’re supposed to be in a literature class, not in an art appreciation class,” I added while my eyes laid still upon the masterpiece, “So what is my professor tryin...