Paintings have a life of their own
that derives from the painter’s soul - Vincent Van Gogh
By
Elizabeth H. Elys
Today 30 of March we commemorate 164th
anniversary of birth of the Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh.
An artist can twist and shape a new world with the
edge of their brush, curving and creating something that would otherwise never
be possible. The best artists are who take the real world and transform it.
Change it into something more appealing and more corresponding to one’s mood.
An artist is a person having superior skill or ability, or who are capable of
producing superior work.
Vincent Van Gogh, who lived a lonely life, was the
first painter to mix impressionism and expressionism in his artwork. Though Van
Gogh only sold one painting in his lifetime, his artwork is worth millions of
dollars in modern time. On March 30, 1987 Vincent Van Gogh’s SUNFLOWERS is
bought for $39.85 million and other painting IRISES was sold for the record
price of $53.9 million at Sotheby’s New York on November 11, 1987.
What
a paradox or an irony of his life! Vincent was a person
with a difficult and dramatic life. He was a poor, unknown artist suffering
from a mental disease. But his perseverance, use of art as skill to cope with
illness, dedication to art, and the support of his brother Theo helped him to
keep on painting. He developed his own style of painting and pushed the
boundaries of impressionism. This approach to art set Van Gogh’s place among
the most famous artists in history, and though he died unknown, now his name is
synonymous with being an artist.
People thought his painting were not of any value.
He left texture in the painting which could have made it look sloppy to its
beholders. The mixture of impressionism and expressionism also could have been
a reason why people avoided his art. Those who lived the time of Van Gogh would
have preferred a life-like drawling or an abstract art, not both as one piece.
But that is exactly as Van Gogh did. He painted the most towards of his life.
Painting was his passion and his profession.
When Van Gogh stayed at the mental hospital in
Saint-Remy, he used painting as coping skill to help himself deal with his
symptoms. He attacked his friend Paul Gauguin and after that he cut half of his
ear of with a razor. The admitting physician described Vincent Van Gogh’s
symptoms as a mania with hallucinations. During his hospitalization, he created
150 paintings. Despite his difficulties, he diligently worked on his paintings,
with the help of his family; he dedicated 10 years of his life to producing an
incredible number of paintings.
Vincent used painting as a way to find a precarious
mental balance, and his raging insecurities, focused channeled and given
visible expression, are what make his painting unique. They are, in a most
moving sense, variations of self-portraiture.
From birth to death Vincent’s life was out of the
ordinary. Only at very end was he like other men. But not for long. Instead of
being forgotten, his fame grew and he was reborn. As light transform all that
it shines upon, so Vincent’s genius was so influence all the artistic movements
that were follow. Van Gogh soul had at last found peace after all the
persecution and inner torment that it had suffered. Theo, his brother was only
one to believe that Vincent would sooner or later find fame. One evening, long
before Vincent’s death, Theo was walking the street of Paris with his friend
and had said: “I should not be surprised if my brother were one of the great
geniuses and will one day be compared to someone like Beethoven.” Theo was not
mistaken.
Throughout his life Vincent was unloved, and he
always hoped to find a woman who would share his daily life and his artistic
adventure. This happiness was denied to him. Unlike in love, he displayed
fantastically poor judgement in several romantic entanglements before resigning
himself to a bachelor life. Van Gogh was intelligent, thoughtful man who
expressed himself eloquently and poignantly in three languages. At the age of
37, and on the brink of the recognition and success that had eluded him for so
long he died of self-inflicted gunshot wound.
He left over 800 paintings and drawings; his work
had an enormous influence on Expressionism, Fauvism, and abstract art.
Van Gogh is probably the best loved of all artists,
partly for the sheer power of his work and partly for the pathos of his life.
His work derives its power from the intense frustration of his loneliness and
from his inability to find those who would love his work and buy it. Everything
Van Gogh painted seems a receptable for an ever-increasing psychic urgency.
For many of us Vincent Van Gogh epitomizes the concept
of the artist as mad genius.
One of the most impressive and great painting of
Vincent Van Gogh is STARRY NIGTH.
