October 11 :

Part I  Van Gogh and Gauguin: The Studio of the South

In February of 1888 Vincent van Gogh traveled to Arles in the south of France to escape the frenzied atmosphere of madcap Paris. He made ambitious plans to found an artists’ colony that would breathe new life into French art. He finally succeeded in persuading Paul Gauguin to join him. The tumultuous story of what happened in the “Studio of the South” is one of the most dramatic in the history of modern art, and the paintings created there are among the most innovative and recognizable images of the late 19^th Century.

October 18:

Part II Vincent van Gogh: After Arles

In one of the most shocking and infamously haunting incidents in art history, Vincent van Gogh, consumed with paranoid delusion, sliced off his left ear. After a relatively short hospital stay, Vincent returned to the Yellow House but could not maintain his mental equilibrium. This class will tell the story of the last months of Vincent’s life, a journey of exhilarating artistic productivity and exhausting, debilitating anxieties. It was a period in which Vincent produced his most memorable, inspirational, and iconic works.