The Unexpected Math Behind Van Gogh’s “Starry Night”

If you’ve ever taken a good art history course on Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, you’ve inevitably come across Vincent van Gogh’s 1889 masterpiece.starry nightThe painting, currently on display at MoMA in New York City, is described on the museum’s website as “an iconic landscape full of movement, energy, and light.” The stillness of the village contrasts with the swirling energy of the sky. Van Gogh’s impasto technique, or thickly applied colors, creates a rhythmic effect that makes the painting appear to be constantly moving within the frame. ” Artistically, Van Gogh succeeded in capturing movement in a way no artist had ever done before. Scientifically, it turns out he was up to something, too. Watch the new TED-ED lesson “The Unexpected Mathematics Behind Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night'” above.

Created by math artist and teacher Natalia St. Clair and animator Avi Offer, this video explores how Van Gogh captured his paintings. [the] His work hides the deep mysteries of movement, fluids, and light, and he was especially successful in depicting the elusive phenomenon known as turbulence. starry night, The video shows that Van Gogh depicts turbulence with a degree of sophistication and precision that rivals the way physicists and mathematicians best described it in their own scientific papers. And it happened, perhaps by chance (?), in the turbulent later years of Van Gogh’s life.

Note: An earlier version of this post appeared on our site in 2014.

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