Whenever I go to the YUAG, I am always intrigued by Vincent Van Gogh’s The Night Café. Here, Van Gogh uses wildly contrasting colors, large, rhythmic brushstrokes, and skewed perspective to infuse the scene with emotions of loneliness and psychological madness. As indicated by the clock that shows it is a quarter after midnight, the café has been transformed from a lively setting of billiards, full drinks, and conversation into a place of reflective silence, drunken patrons slumped over their tables, and empty glasses and chairs. The painting is defined by clashing and contrasting complementary red and green colors, bringing a sense of violent intensity to the work. In addition to his application of color, Van Gogh’s brushstrokes, swirling streams that vary in hue from one to the next, evoke a sense of bold fury that persists throughout the rest of the painting and his use of of plunging perspective is so skewed that it seems to invite the viewer to experience his or her own feeling of psychological madness.

Vincent Van Gogh’s The Night Café (1888)