City of Science: Van Gogh and the End of Nature

Vincent van Gogh is usually thought of as a painter of nature (sunflowers, fields, stars) portraying his direct encounters with a world unspoiled by technology. Michael Lobel challenges this view by showing how Van Gogh’s work is inseparable from the age of industrialization in which he lived — from its factories and polluted skies to its coal mines and gasworks — even drawing on industrial waste for materials. He reveals how Van Gogh engaged with the environmental realities of his time, forewarning of the threats of climate change and ecological destruction we face today. Lobel, a professor of Art History at Hunter College and the CUNY Graduate Center, speaks about this alternative look at Van Gogh with Peter Groffman, a professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the Advanced Science Research Center at the CUNY Graduate Center and at Brooklyn College.

Presented with the Advanced Science Research Center, the Ph.D. Program in Art History, and the Center for the Humanities.

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