Post-Impressionist Rug Hooking

A Contemporary Adaptation of Van Gogh's Cypress in Wheatfields, 20" x 16", #4- and 6-cut wool and yarn on rug warp. Adapted from Bruce Bodden's painting After Van Gogh (an adaptation of Wheat Field with Cypresses by Vincent Van Gogh) and hooked by Jeri Laskowski, Rochester, New York, 2014.

First, let’s attempt a definition of the term Post-Impressionism. If Impressionist painters were known for experimenting, then Post-Impressionist painters took their experimentation even further, seeking to break free and ever freer of the conventions of representational art. Not for them were the realistic landscapes or portraits of members of the ruling class at their leisure. Rather, they painted workers, farmers, and citizens in their everyday lives. They turned away from the softer palettes of the Victorian painters and used pure, brilliant color, applied straight from the paint tubes instead. Other painters aimed to shock the viewer with absurd subject matter or used kaleidoscopic patterns and geometric shapes. But all the Post-Impressionists pursued their own artistic visions, depicting the ways they saw the world and largely ignoring the rules of realism and purely representational art.



This article is from the June/July/August 2015 issue. For more information on our issues, check out our issues page.