Friday, February 05, 2010
A new look at Van Gogh
The popular view of Vincent Van Gogh, which probably most of us share, is of a wild-eyed mad genius, creating paintings full of colorful outbursts and eventually committing suicide while in the throes of mental illness. In their broad outlines, these facts are true, but there is so much more to know about this seminal artist. And once we know him better we can admire him even more for what he accomplished in spite of poverty and struggles with illness—and his early death becomes even more poignant.
The current exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, The Real Van Gogh, provides a very complete and full impression of Van Gogh the man, providing 35 of his original letters alongside 65 paintings and 30 drawings. For perhaps the first time, art lovers will have a glimpse into the life of this driven and conflicted great talent.
Van Gogh’s artistic career lasted only ten years. He was largely self taught, and the exhibition traces the development of his talent from early drawings of still life, landscapes, and the peasants who were his neighbors, to the stunning output of his last years, when he was tormented by mental illness but still managed to paint daily. And all the time he was drawing and painting, he was writing letters to his family and friends. Since he was a solitary person by nature, these letters were his way of staying in touch with the world around him. He was very well read, and his letters (in Dutch, French, and English) demonstrate his literary as well as artistic interests.
Van Gogh cared deeply about words. He wrote to a friend, Emile Bernard, in 1888: ‘There are so many people, especially among our pals, who imagine that words are nothing. On the contrary, don’t you think, it’s as interesting and as difficult to say a thing well as to paint a thing.’
An article, “A Beautiful Mind”, in the Royal Academy magazine has more detail on Van Gogh’s letters
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