Van Gogh: The Life

with Gregory White Smith and Steven Naifeh
in Books, Art & Design
on Tuesday, January 10, 2012 * * * * *

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Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith on their book "Van Gogh: The Life"

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Keywords:
France
post impressionism
Gauguin
painting
Van Gogh
The Life
art
Vangogh
Impressionism

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  • Comments 5
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    1. artroshi  01/12/2012 08:37 AM Report

      To say Van Gogh had little skill or training is absurd. When he painted he was in great ecstasy or a state of heightened awareness. ie. higher conscioousness. To me this is the purpose of art.

      That his personal life is tragic is the result of many factors. Part of his mental illness could possibly have come from poisoning from the heavy metals that were and are in paint...cadmiums and cobalts etc. I am under the impression that he may have been casual about that... these produce a 'meloncholia' when ingested in even minute amounts....

      Also he was considered crazy by most of the people who came in contact with him. I think that most 21st C. people meeting him today would ostracize him just as he was ostracized in his own time. This certainly doesn't help one's outlook on life...

      Still when he painted he was most deeply his authentic self, and this is what is communicated thru his work, the awesome integrity and authenticity of the man!

    2. SharkswithfrikingLazers  01/12/2012 01:47 AM Report

      A miserable, mentally ill life that lives on through the work of his genius.

      Is this an example of good from bad?

      Are we allowed joy from his sorrow?

    3. SharkswithfrikingLazers  01/12/2012 01:41 AM Report

      Wow! 10 years on the project and he only lived 37 years.

      He was one and they are two.

      If only someone could have spent that kind of time with him when he was alive.

    4. beenthere2460  01/11/2012 06:08 PM Report

      Very interesting interview. What was most important to me was the artist's deeply felt duality with life expressed in his last work.

      His life was such a torment for the simple reason that he wanted to paint in a significant way. I don't think anyone was ready for him when he was alive, and it only takes death to realize how important a contribution is when no one else can surpass his skill at what he is trying to convey.

    5. REMant  01/11/2012 11:13 AM Report

      Van Gogh certainly had little skill or training. What he does seem to have had is a very "modern" sense of abstraction and composition, the point of abstraction being not to convey impressions or expressions, or drip paint provocatively, but rather to convert a scene into shapes, planes and masses that become a composition of themselves.