Vincent Van Gogh, Starry Night over the Rhone, 1888-9Musee d'Orsay, Paris
(Source)
(Source)
This week's painting is one that I'll be seeing in C-town at the Masterpieces from Paris exhibition. The Musee d'Orsay is currently undergoing renovations and so they've sent out some of their works to various museums while they slap some paint around.
Van Gogh as an artist is much like Botticelli to me. The bright colours and bold lines appealed to my youthful appreciation of art. As I got older and became more interested in the socio-political themes that underlie the creation of work, they appealed less. When I got to uni and the discussion of reading the artist's personality through their output and the artist as a misunderstood genius - the idea that it is necessary and acceptable for 'true' artists to be dysfunctional, I was repelled. (No it is not okay to act weird and then just wave your hand and say it's because you philistines don't understand my 'work' - this is what's wrong with post-modern/conceptual crap.)
It is very widely documented that Van Gogh was somewhat psychologically disturbed and misunderstood by his contemporaries and peers. I may be wrong, but I think he only ever sold one painting while alive and constantly begged his brother Theo for money. He attempted to start an artists colony in Arles but ended up having an argument with Paul Gauguin, famously cutting off his ear afterwards. He had himself admitted to an asylum, and then committed suicide. All his fractured psyche is allegedly portrayed in his works, via the multiple self-portraits and the the broken stroke technique.
OR IS IT?!
Van Gogh admired the 17th century master and another Dutch artist, Rembrandt, the Rembrandt who painted multiple self-portraits and had a technique which involved piling the paint on thickly (impasto). Van Gogh had little formal training as an artist and the thick wet-on-wet impasto technique is very forgiving of mistakes. Also, his technique has been proposed by some as a possible reason why he was so poor - he ran through his paints quickly. The relatively recent production of ready-made oil paints in tubes liberated artists from their studios, allowing artists to paint outdoors (en plein air). However, by painting outdoors, artists were not able to let their paints dry as thoroughly before applying a different colour, meaning that they often had to apply paint through quick broad brushstrokes and do the finer work inside. While he undoubtedly had psychiatric problems, it probably didn't help that the cadmium yellow colour that Van Gogh was so fond of was produced with mercuric chloride. Mercuric chloride is a toxic compound with both acute and chronic effects on the central nervous system (bless those MSDS forms!).
Anyway, having said all of that, Starry Night is quite a pretty picture which I do not believe to be demonstrative of the oppressive burdens of his mind and persecution from society.
Van Gogh as an artist is much like Botticelli to me. The bright colours and bold lines appealed to my youthful appreciation of art. As I got older and became more interested in the socio-political themes that underlie the creation of work, they appealed less. When I got to uni and the discussion of reading the artist's personality through their output and the artist as a misunderstood genius - the idea that it is necessary and acceptable for 'true' artists to be dysfunctional, I was repelled. (No it is not okay to act weird and then just wave your hand and say it's because you philistines don't understand my 'work' - this is what's wrong with post-modern/conceptual crap.)
It is very widely documented that Van Gogh was somewhat psychologically disturbed and misunderstood by his contemporaries and peers. I may be wrong, but I think he only ever sold one painting while alive and constantly begged his brother Theo for money. He attempted to start an artists colony in Arles but ended up having an argument with Paul Gauguin, famously cutting off his ear afterwards. He had himself admitted to an asylum, and then committed suicide. All his fractured psyche is allegedly portrayed in his works, via the multiple self-portraits and the the broken stroke technique.
OR IS IT?!
Van Gogh admired the 17th century master and another Dutch artist, Rembrandt, the Rembrandt who painted multiple self-portraits and had a technique which involved piling the paint on thickly (impasto). Van Gogh had little formal training as an artist and the thick wet-on-wet impasto technique is very forgiving of mistakes. Also, his technique has been proposed by some as a possible reason why he was so poor - he ran through his paints quickly. The relatively recent production of ready-made oil paints in tubes liberated artists from their studios, allowing artists to paint outdoors (en plein air). However, by painting outdoors, artists were not able to let their paints dry as thoroughly before applying a different colour, meaning that they often had to apply paint through quick broad brushstrokes and do the finer work inside. While he undoubtedly had psychiatric problems, it probably didn't help that the cadmium yellow colour that Van Gogh was so fond of was produced with mercuric chloride. Mercuric chloride is a toxic compound with both acute and chronic effects on the central nervous system (bless those MSDS forms!).
Anyway, having said all of that, Starry Night is quite a pretty picture which I do not believe to be demonstrative of the oppressive burdens of his mind and persecution from society.
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