An extraordinary exhibit appearing at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art this summer includes a strong Van Gogh still life, painted in Paris in 1887, reproduced here, called Lilacs.
Given all the technology, it's actually not too bad a copy, via the Santa Barbara Independent.
But even better than the painting might be the curator's note. He or she quotes Van Gogh as saying to a fellow artist that he wanted with his colors to "harmonize brutal extremes."
Opens a whole new way of thinking about his work. Also in the exhibit is another, perhaps even better painting, new to me, called Outskirts of Paris:
In this painting, the curator pointed out, Van Gogh pits the city and its changes against the country. Another form of harmonizing extremes.
Kit Stolz 