What Does Life Have to do With It?
One argument critics use is the "his life was better than his art" theory. Vincent's life story was so dramatic and so tragic that it acts as a rosy-tinted filter for people looking at his work. Personally, I think that argument doesn't hold water. There have been many MANY artists that have lead tragic lives or committed suicide and none of them are as popular as Van Gogh. When you get right down to it, great art communicates more powerfully than great biographies.
Not From Just One School
Art was at a big crossroads during Vincent's life. It was moving from realism to Impressionism and then to modern art. In between were short-lived art movements like Pointillism (painting in a series of dots) and Symbolism, where the subject matter was strictly from the artist's imagination (think Paul Gauguin at his most freaky.) Vincent managed to blend the best elements of these schools without degenerating into total chaos.
Original Interpretations
What is art? One definition is "to hold a mirror up to the universe." The artist is the mirror. Van Gogh painted in a way that only he could do. He wanted to paint feelings as well as what was actually in front of him. Even when he copied other painter's works, he injected different color schemes and other subtle differences so that they are unmistakably from Van Gogh's hand. Before Van Gogh, it was very unusual for an artist to put any of his inner world into a work. If an artist wanted to put himself in the painting, he would just paint his face in there somewhere.
Ahead of His Time
There was nobody painting quite like Van Gogh in the last five years of his life. Although Van Gogh tried many styles in the ten years he spent as an artist, by 1888 he had developed his own colorfully intense style. This intensity and radical reinterpretations of the visible world greatly inspired the generations of artists that lived long after Van Gogh.
You Try and Paint Like Him, Sunshine
Think Van Gogh ain't so great? You try to paint like him. Don't copy the paintings exactly -- just paint something like him. You'll find it's an incredibly hard exercise. This is when it will finally hit home what a great artist Van Gogh was.
A very thoughtful and interesting article which reaches deep into the explanation of Vincent’s greatness and his uniqueness in a busy art world. Original, ahead of his time, not from any school ... and so on, each a facet of his importance. However, for me, they still come up short and fail to explain why the gallery housing his work in London’s National Gallery is always “heaving and alive” with animated viewers of some of his most famous works, e.g. a three-dimensional sunflower. Behind this cauldron of feverish interest the gallery is usually thinly populated, Vincent’s thick brush and knife work creates a three-dimensional quality which leads the eyes and minds rapidly across the painting at speed almost creating the brushwork itself. Eyes widen at the depth of paint and nature of the application. Add all this to what many people know of Vincent and they are faced with a unique style created by a passion that few encounter in their own lives. His individualism coupled with his passion, great skill and an eye like no other is also part of what made him a great artist. Coming face-to-face is what makes people appreciate his greatness,
ReplyDeleteHis evolved style involved repetitious brush stroke patterns within patterns within patterns. The style was a precursor of the hallucinogenic
ReplyDeletevisions of the 60's. In essence a literal illustration of paranoiac schizophrenia, which he had and almost anyone born after 1950 has a bit of by proxi. Why is "Hamlet" Shakespeare's most popular play in the 20th century...same deal.
After hearing the hype of Van Gogh, I was holidaying in Amsterdam so went along to view his exhibition.
ReplyDeleteI am an engineer and for me I found his work frustrating to view.
Van Gogh appeared to be learning how to paint, his perception of geometry quite horrific, especially within the bedroom painting.
Van Gogh struggling to imitate master works of others with the outcome looking more akin to a child's brush strokes.
Van Gogh for me personally was like watching an American Idol contestant who couldn't sing.
Some say his work is amazing, well I don't believe the hype. Van Goh sure wasn't making a living from itcat the time.
Throw in the mix madness, tragedy and suicide, coupled with the branding and marketing and there it is....the fake over hyped art world.
10 years van Goh was struggling to be something masterful, within his own delusions of grandeur.
Unknown...I am an electrical and mechanical engineer however I am able to accept someone else's view of the world. You suggest that you have an inflexibility of thinking through inculcating an 'engineering' way of viewing the world, which is a very narrow way of looking at things. What I believe which isn't a normalised ideation, is that the amount that people spend on art is obscene when we still have hungry children in the world.
ReplyDeleteHowever I enjoy my small collection of Ltd Ed prints (as I do not have millions of pounds), and I think van Gogh is an artist that portrays the world differently, those with rigid schemas cannot accept any frame of reference except their own. I even accept your frame of reference, I just do not agree as I believe it is rigid thinking that leads to stagnation. My collection is based on the water colour paintings of Gordon King, Sir William Russell Flint and Eric Sturgeon, and from this I have developed my critical skills (and 20 years in academia). May I ask what your collection is based on therefore giving an insight into your frame of reference concerning art in general and specifically Van Gogh. Kind regards...
Van Gogh opens the heart and soul through his immense artistic innocence and creative freedom.
ReplyDeleteSorry, I just don't buy it. Your "You Try and Paint Like Him, Sunshine" argument doesn't hold water. It's hard to poop while standing on your head, that doesn't make it a special gift. The "artists" that combine styles then turn out ugly, incomprehensible smears of paint on canvas are definitely pulling the wool over peoples eyes, ala the emperors new cloths. "Starry Night" was painted in one day by a mental patient and it shows. People read way too much into modernists works. I love hearing stories of people paying exorbitant sums of money for some schmuck who gargled with paint and then threw it up on a canvas and stated that it's "cerebral" or that "the use of color in this work is amazing". Sorry, consider me a luddite then because I'm I'm just calling it as I see it.
ReplyDeletewhat the hell is wrong with people on the internet... if you can't see why people like van gogh's paintings, you're blind.
ReplyDelete