Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night has been a visitor favorite at MoMA since it first appeared in our Van Gogh retrospective in 1935 and then was acquired in 1941. To become acquainted with the heart and mind of its maker, there is no better source than his letters. Those to his brother Theo, in particular, reveal his deepest aims and convictions, and his pleasures and anxieties, especially during the last year-and-a-half of his life, working in near-isolation from an asylum in St.-Remy.
Journey into Van Gogh’s unforgettable painting during a live Q&A with Ann Temkin, MoMA’s Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture, and a performative reading of the extraordinary letters between the artist and his brother Theo by acclaimed actor and playwright Anna Deavere Smith, on Thursday, December 3, at 8:00 p.m. ET. (And if you can’t join in the live conversation, you can watch anytime after.) Get to know Van Gogh, listen to a security officer explain why she loves working next to this painting, and explore The Starry Night through other features, including an introductory video, an interactive 3D rendering, and a cosmologist’s take on the painting’s famous sky.
