The public is invited to join the Muscatine Art Center in welcoming Carol Ehlers, art history speaker, as she presents a 45 minute lecture on the art of French Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh. The lecture will take place Thursday, April 26 at 5:30 pm in the Muscatine Art Center`s Music Room. Admission is free.
Vincent Willem van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853 in the Netherlands, the oldest child of a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church. He began to draw as a child but did not begin painting until his late twenties. Van Gogh's work was exhibited for the first time in August 1885 in the windows of a paint dealer in The Hague.
Despite his rejection of academic teaching van Gogh took the higher level admission exams at the Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and in January 1886 graduated in painting and drawing. He left for Arles in 1888, and in the spring of 1889 entered a hospital near there after having famously cut off his own ear. During his stay the clinic and its garden became the main subjects of his paintings and many of his most compelling and best recognized work date from this period of his life.
In 1890, after years of painful anxiety and frequent bouts of mental illness, van Gogh died at the age of 37. At his death his work was known to only a handful of people and appreciated by fewer still. In just over a decade he had produced more than 2100 works of art, many that today, are among the most sought after and admired paintings in the world.
In 1992 the Muscatine Art Center`s collections were significantly enriched by a gift of twenty-seven works of art by Toulouse-Lautrec, Matisse, Degas, Boudin, Chagall, Renoir, and other European artists. The collection was a gift from the estate of Mary Musser Gilmore in honor of her parents, Richard Drew Musser and Sarah Walker Musser.
EVENT DETAILS:
Lecture: "The Wonderful World of Color: Vincent van Gogh"
Who: Carol Ehlers
When: Thursday, April 26, 2012
Time: 5:30 PM
Where: The Muscatine Art Center`s Music Room
Admission to this program is FREE.
Please contact Katy Doherty, Program Coordinator, with any questions or concerns at 563-263-8282 or by email at kdoherty@muscatineiowa.gov.
The Muscatine Art Center is open to the public Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 10 AM to 5 PM, Thursday from 10 AM to 7 PM and Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 5 PM Admission is FREE.
