Art is always considered to be subjective. But this quality opens the doors to discussion, debate and criticism. 132 years after Vincent Van Gogh painted the iconic Café Terrace at Night, a new debate brewed over Twitter regarding Van Gogh’s skills as a painter.
It all started when Twitter user going by the name Margarita tweeted a side-by-side comparison of Van Gogh’s painting and Chinese artist Haixia Liu’s realistic reinterpretation of Café Terrace.
“Haixia Liu, 1962, (left) paints van Gogh more skillfully than Van Gogh (right). Should expose how overrated van Gogh is” tweeted Margarita.
But Van Gogh fans quickly came to the painter’s defense, explaining realism isn’t the only judge of a great painting.
One tweet said, “Are we really saying Van Gogh was a bad artist now because he didn’t paint hyper realistically. Is that what we’re doing now. Way to completely miss the point of why Van Gogh painted in the way that he did in the first place.”
Other users also backed up Van Gogh’s technique, a style that has been celebrated and admired for several years.
Read through some of the tweets below:
