How Van Gogh influenced modern art
Van Gogh died in 1890, almost unknown. Twenty years later, he is the most admired painter in the modern world. Matisse, Derain, Vlaminck, Nolde, Kirchner, Kandinsky, Bacon, Pollock: all claim to be his. What did he invent that the XXe century found so liberating? Color as emotion, touch as gesture, painting as cry.
Three inventions that liberated painting
Van Gogh gave to the XXe century three permissions that academic art refused: paint color not as you see it, but as you feel it ; leave the brush mark visible and expressive ; make the painting an emotional act, not a window on the world. These three permissions open all paths of modern art.
Fauvism (Matisse, Derain, 1905) regains its arbitrary color. German Expressionism (Nolde, Kirchner, 1905-1911) adopts its tormented touch. Abstract Expressionism (Pollock, de Kooning, 1948) radicalizes his gesture. And Francis Bacon, in 1957, painted a whole series "after Van Gogh".
Color as emotion, not as description
Van Gogh was the first painter to fully assume that the color of a painting did not have to match the color of reality. In the Night cafe, he writes that he wants to express "the terrible passions of humanity through red and green". The walls are not red in life; they are in the painting, because red feels anxiety.
This idea - that color is one emotion language, not a copy of the visible - is the seed of Fauvism. When Matisse and Derain, in 1905, painted green portraits and red trees, they did exactly what Vincent had theorized twenty years earlier.
"A color that is not locally true... but which suggests the emotion of a fiery temperament."Vincent to Théo, about the Café de nuit (1888)
The visible touch, the gesture that remains
Before Van Gogh, the touch of the brush had to disappear: the painting was a smooth window on the world. Vincent refuses. Its touch remains visible, thick, vibrant: each brushstroke is a recorded act, a trace of the body that painted.
This visibility of the gesture is exactly what the expressionists will take up. The spiral of the Starry night, the impasto of Sunflowers, the hatching of self-portraits: all this tells the viewer how the painting has been made - and invites you to feel the energy of the painter at work.
This idea culminated with Jackson Pollock, who in 1948 poured the color directly onto the canvas on the ground: the gesture became the sole subject of the painting.
The Fauves: the color released
The story begins in 1901. A major Van Gogh retrospective opened at the Bernheim-Jeune gallery in Paris. Two young painters still unknown - André Derain and Maurice de Vlaminck - visited it and left upset. Vlaminck would later say: "That day, I loved Van Gogh more than my own father."
Bernheim-Young
The retrospective that "excites" Derain and Vlaminck. Fauvism is in the making.
Matisse and Russell
Matisse receives a drawing of Van Gogh by John Russell. He "abandons his earthy color palette for bright colors".
The Autumn Salon
Matisse, Derain, Vlaminck exhibit together. A critic nicknamed them "the Beasts". Van Gogh's color has become a movement.
German Expressionism: Exposed Pain
In Germany, the influence is even more direct. The group Die Brücke (The Bridge), founded in Dresden in 1905 by Kirchner, Heckel and Schmidt-Rottluff, openly claims to be Van Gogh. Emil Nolde, one of the greatest of them, "recognizes his debt to the work of Van Gogh".
What the German Expressionists remember is this exposed pain. Vincent's self-portraits, his tormented landscapes, his spiral skies express an anguish that academic art has silenced. With Van Gogh, the painting becomes a cry - and the viewer can no longer look away.
The Sonderbund (Cologne, 1912) then the Armory Show (New York, 1913) spread this influence on a global scale. Van Gogh became, with Cézanne and Gauguin, one of the three sources of modernism.
From Bacon to contemporary art
The influence does not stop with the Fauves or the expressionists. In 1957, Francis Bacon painted an entire series "after Van Gogh", resuming The Painter on his way to work. Jackson Pollock admires the destructive energy of the gesture. Willem de Kooning sees Van Gogh as the first action painter.
Even today, every Van Gogh exhibition breaks attendance records. The myth of misunderstood genius, of the artist who suffers and paints despite everything, remains one of the most powerful stories in modern culture - and it nourishes the way we look at all expressive painting.
What Van Gogh planted in modern art
The right to paint a green face or a yellow sky: without Van Gogh, no Matisse, no Derain.
The visible, signed, almost sculpted brushstroke: the ancestor of Pollock's dripping.
Thick dough, living material: Monticelli had anticipated it, Van Gogh imposed it, the expressionists adopted it.
The right to paint fear, joy, madness - art as an expression of self, not as a representation of the world.
The man who suffers, who paints despite everything, who dies unknown and becomes immortal: this story nourishes all modern artistic culture.
Five paintings that changed modern art
Related articles on Van Gogh
Van Gogh's touch
Direction, rhythm and impasto under the magnifying glass.
Read ArticleVan Gogh, Delacroix and Rembrandt
The masters he looked at at the museum.
Read ArticleNight paintings
Cafés, Rhône, stars and roads.
Read ArticleVan Gogh after Millet
Copy to translate into colors.
Read ArticleExplore the Van Goghs
Van Gogh Sunflowers
The Arles Sunflower Series.
See the collectionStarry nights
Starry skies and night roads.
See the collectionVan Gogh Cafes
Night cafe, terrace, interiors.
See the collectionWheat fields
Sowers, harvests, crows.
See the collectionCypress
Cypress of the Alpilles and Saint-Rémy.
See the collectionSelf-portraits
Vincent's psychological intensity.
See the collectionVan Gogh in Arles
The most colorful period, 1888.
See the collectionSaint-Rémy-de-Provence
Spirals, cypresses and starry nights.
See the collectionSuns, sunsets and sunrises
The color of the Provençal sun.
See the collectionVincent van Gogh Collection
All reproductions.
See the collectionVan Gogh and modern art
How did Van Gogh influence Fauvism?
By its unrealistic color. Matisse received a drawing from Van Gogh in 1896 and "abandoned his earthy palette for bright colors". The 1901 retrospective in Paris "excited" Derain and Vlaminck. Four years later, Fauvism was born.
How did he influence expressionism?
Through its visible touch and emotional intensity. The German expressionists (Nolde, Kirchner, Die Brücke) took up his expressive brush and his right to paint anxiety. "Nolde acknowledges his debt to Van Gogh."
What exhibition made Van Gogh famous?
The 1901 retrospective at the Bernheim-Jeune gallery in Paris, then the Sonderbund in Cologne (1912) and the Armory Show in New York (1913). These three exhibitions established him as one of the sources of modernism.
Why is Van Gogh considered a precursor of modern art?
Because he invented three permissions that all modern art will exploit: color as emotion, touch as gesture, and painting as self-expression rather than as representation of the world.
Who was influenced by Van Gogh in the 20th century?
Matisse, Derain, Vlaminck (Fauvism); Nolde, Kirchner, Kandinsky (Expressionism); Francis Bacon ("after Van Gogh" series, 1957); Jackson Pollock and de Kooning (gesture and energy).
What did Matisse say about Van Gogh?
That he had freed him. Influenced by a drawing by Van Gogh received from John Russell, Matisse "abandoned his earthy color palette for bright colors." This is the founding gesture of Fauvism.
Go to texts
- Wikipedia (en) - Vincent van Gogh, "Legacy" and "Influence on Expressionism and Fauvism" sections.
- Wikipedia (en) - Post-Impressionism.
- Wikipedia (en) - Fauvism.
- Wikipedia (en) - Expressionism.
- Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam - collection and influence.
- The Letters of Vincent van Gogh - Van Gogh Museum scholarly edition /Huygens ING.
- Wikimedia Commons - Starry Night, public domain.
Vincent van Gogh's works are in the public domain. The facts about Van Gogh's influence are based on the painter's and movements' Wikipedia articles (Fauvism, Expressionism). Quotes are taken from the letters (Van Gogh Museum edition).
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