The Starry Night (1889)

Episode notes

Alex Schmidt is joined by comedy writers Lydia Bugg (1900HOTDOG, the ‘Trailer Park Boys’ comic anthology) and Dan Hopper (Ranker, The New Yorker) for a look at why the painting “The Starry Night” is secretly incredibly fascinating.

Direct link to see the painting: https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79802

Visit http://sifpod.fun/ for research sources, handy links, and this week’s bonus episode

[direct link to a high-resolution version of the painting]

[direct link to MoMA’s latest digitization of the painting]

LINKS FOR THE GUESTS:

• Lydia Bugg on Twitter
• 1900HOTDOG
• Lydia Bugg on Reductress.com
• Trailer Park Boys Get a F#¢*!ng Comic Book! #1
• Dan Hopper on Twitter
• Dan Hopper’s page at Ranker.com
• Dan Hopper’s writing for The New Yorker

RESOURCES USED TO INFORM THE EPISODE’S LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

• native-land.ca
• U.S. Department Of Arts And Culture
• The True Native New Yorkers Can Never Truly Reclaim Their Homeland (Smithsonian)
• Mapping Manahatta: 10 Lenape sites in New York City (6sqft)
• “Finding Lenapehoking” (YouTube / Hudson River Maritime Museum)

RESEARCH SOURCES:

• Van Go? Van Gof? Van Gog? They’re all wrong, Van Gogh experts say (CNN) — this story covers the Amsterdam Van Gogh museum encouraging patrons to use the “American” pronunciation for the artist’s last name.
• Van Gogh: The Life by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith
• Vincent van Gogh: The Starry Night by Richard Thomson
• A Nerd’s Guide To The 2,229 Paintings At MoMA (FiveThirtyEight)
• A Clue in the Mystery of Van Gogh’s Ear (The Atlantic)
• Great Art Explained on YouTube: “Vincent Van Gogh’s The Starry Night”
• official website of Cloister of Saint Paul of Mausole, Van Gogh Cultural and Tourist Centre
• Van Gogh’s Night Visions (Smithsonian Magazine)
• The unexpected math behind Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” (TED-Ed / YouTube)
• The Museum of Modern Art’s page for “The Starry Night”
• Starry Night in 3D: Explore Vincent van Gogh’s beloved painting in astonishing detail in this behind-the-scenes look at a new imaging tool. (MoMA Magazine)

Image of the view from Vincent van Gogh’s window at the asylum:

Image of cypress trees in the south of France:

The painting ‘The Red Vineyard near Arles’ (1888) by Vincent van Gogh:

Photo of Johanna Bonger and her son Vincent Willem van Gogh: