I noticed something today. Quite by accident. Yet it strikes me as extremely odd.
I was browsing a folder of images, in thumbnail view. There were two famous artworks side-by-side. And they both looked remarkably similar to me for some reason:
The Starry Night (1889) by Vincent van Gogh, and The Great Wave off Kanagawa (c. 1829–32) by Katsushika Hokusai.
The artwork is obviously not the same. Far from it. It’s the flow of both that I find unusually similar:
I did a red overlay of what my brain sees in case your brain doesn’t work like mine does.
Or maybe it’s just me.
Weird.
Until next time...
It’s the “Z” – the way our eyes read a page, an image, anything – from top left to right back to the left and down, then right again… it’s normal.
(yea, I said it – “normal”). 🙂
And who would have thought those guys from long ago were doing UI (user interface, not urinary incontinence) studies?
Two of my most favoritist images, too!!
I love the swirly shapes in The Starry Night. This sounds bizarre, but when I don’t wear my glasses and I squint, that’s how I see most objects. I often wondered if van Gogh had similar vision issues and just painted what he saw?
I have always loved The Great Wave, and am planning to incorporate it somewhere amongst my tattoos.
that is very astute of you to notice this.
I don’t think I told you that Van Gogh is my most favoritist artist! While in Paris, I had my nose like an inch from his famous blue self portrait in the Musee D’Orsay. I think I came in my pants and cried a little– simultaneously.
That’s very interesting. I never noticed, but then I’ve never looked at the two images at the same time. Thank you for pointing this out. It’s the kind of useless information that I find important to know. No, it’s not just you.
When I saw them side-by-side without the red curve, I noticed the similarity immediately.
Just to let you know, Vincent Van Go was acctually influenced by the Ukiyo-e artists, whom made cheap artwork for the poor living in Edo. And one of these Ukiyo-e artists, the late and great Katsushika Hokusai, is the creator of the Great Wave of Kanagawa print, one of his prints in a series based on Mount Fuji (notice it in the background). Van Gogh, infact, took a liking to a lot of Hokusais works, and acutally recreated them using his western techinque. Anyway, it’s nice that you noticed this 🙂