Van Gogh and the End of Nature – Michael Lobel in Conversation with Peter Groffman
Wed, Apr 23, 2025
6:30 PM–8:00 PM
Free and open to all. This hybrid event will take place in Martin E. Segal Theatre at the CUNY Graduate Center and online via livestream. Registration required.
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.
This event is presented by Public Programs with the Advanced Science Research Center, the Ph.D. Program in Art History, and the Center for the Humanities.
Please contact Jimmy Cok at [email protected] in advance for CART services or any additional accessibility requests or concerns for in-person events. This event will be livestreamed, and closed captions will be provided.