Van Gogh Challenging Existing Norms Relevance Today: Changed art from being about the realistic look to more about the artist’s interpretation. Instead of focusing solely on the physical appearance of the model, Van Gogh's portraits brought out the personality and the aspects of the person that made them unique. Van Gogh was a master at expressing emotion through the use of creative color combinations and changes to the shape of the object or person He did not present objects in his pieces with the accurate shape. “I put my heart and soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process." Experimented with broken brush strokes Used pointillist technique Relevance Today: Artists continue to mimic his style of painting influencing generations of artists after him as he was one of the precursors of early Abstraction, Fauvism and Expressionism. Modern art uses colours to represent different emotions and are very focused on the artist’s perspective than the literal object being portrayed Popularized the notion of starving artist Van Gogh