Discuss the style and content of The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh. How does van Gogh expand upon Post-Impressionism?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The ideal answer should include:
1. Post-Impressionist artists sought to create art with a greater degree of formal order and structure, and to develop more abstract and expressive styles.
2. Van Gogh contributed significantly to the emergence of a new tradition of expressionism, in which the intensity of his feelings overrode any desire for the fidelity to the actual appearance of things.
3. The sky, blazing with exploding starts high above the quiet town, is clearly more a record of what van Gogh felt than what he saw.
4. In this painting and other examples of his work, van Gogh uses multi-directional impasto to give his composition a sense of physical energy and a palpable surface texture.