The Night Cafe 1888

Editor: Here we have Van Gogh's "The Night Cafe," painted in 1888 using oil paint. It's currently at the Yale University Art Gallery. The space seems to warp slightly. It has such a strangely unsettling, almost oppressive atmosphere. What are your observations? Curator: Indeed. Let's analyze how Van Gogh achieves this disquiet. Observe the intensely contrasting colours—the virulent green ceiling against the aggressive reds of the walls. Notice also how he employs complementary colours in close proximity, particularly the juxtaposition of red and green which further amplifies their intensities. The yellow light emitting from the lamps above contributes further to the feeling of unease by seeming to both reveal and distort. Editor: The perspective is also odd, isn't it? Like the floor is tilted upward toward us. Curator: Precisely. The tilted plane adds to the disorientation. The composition creates an all-encompassing, enveloping sense of enclosure through a flattening of perspectival recession; Van Gogh's strategic use of receding planes compresses the picture space in a very calculated fashion. The colour composition makes an interior that vibrates rather uncomfortably on the canvas. It suggests how colours alone may construct a powerful emotional language. Editor: So, by manipulating colour and perspective, Van Gogh emphasizes an unsettling ambience? I'll look at Van Gogh in a new way. Thank you. Curator: Indeed. Hopefully this has demonstrated how the visual mechanics work independently. And that sometimes can generate an emotionally resonating impression for any viewer, in any generation.