A new anthology of translated essays by the critic Robert Walser — with needed insights for the contemporary era.

Nightfall can inspire fascination with the starry sky, optimistic hopes for fulfilled sexual desire, or at least anticipation of sleep. But it can also cause anxiety if you are lonely, which is why van Gogh described The Night Café (1988), at MoMA, as showing a place where “dark forces lurked and suppressed human passions could suddenly explode.”

The Metropolitan Museum of Art 1000 Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street (212) 879-5500 October 18, 2005–December 31, 2005 There are about 1,100 Van Gogh drawings in existence and this exhibition includes 113 of them. Art historians have spent many years analyzing the work of Van Gogh but he remains an enigma. How and why did … Continued