Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night is one of the most recognizable paintings in all of art history, and has become a textbook example of “post-impressionist” painting. But its aesthetic beauty is often intertwined with the tortured life story of its creator — he painted it while staying in an asylum, only a few months before his death, a rumored suicide.
Our art critic, Jerry Saltz, took a replica of Starry Night underground, in the hopes of learning what New Yorkers make of it and helping them understand the work — and the man behind it.