Photos via MonetaliaI stopped into the Gagosian gallery today to take in the current exhibit, Claude Monet: Late Work.  A dimly lit sanctuary opened up in front of me as I waltzed in and checked my umbrella.  An aura of calm, made even more dramatic by the gloom of the grey skies outside, suffused the galleries.   There were the usual calm, pastel-hued pond landscapes but some of the late works also had a more aggressive streak that distinguished them and set them in contrast to the earlier paintings.  In many of the paintings, I saw echoes of Van Gogh and Munch and predecessors to de Kooning's wild, frenzied brushstrokes.  The celebration of vibrant colors isn't the Monet we know and love, so it was quite refreshing to see these works exhibited alongside the conventional ones.  While these oils might seem commonplace and even boring now, Monet was innovative in the early twentieth century for his en plein air approach to painting.   He played with natural light, painting the same subject at different times of day to create series of paintings with varied renderings of a cathedral facade, landscape or the gardens of his beloved Giverny.