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Van Gogh at 150Art enthusiasts are enjoying a celebration of the 150th Anniversary of the birth of the incomparable Vincent van Gogh. The master was born on March 30, 1853 in The Netherlands. Vincent van Gogh's life is as much a part of his mystique as his artwork. It can be said he was the most driven artist of all time. Van Gogh is the poster child for the impassioned albeit misunderstood artist. Even the briefest overview of his life demonstrates his incredible passion for his chosen endeavors. Van Gogh developed his artist skills after a few false starts. He was a successful art dealer until he decided it wasn't a fulfilling career. Subsequently he dabbled in teaching and eventually theology, attempting to follow in his father's footsteps as a preacher.
It is true that Van Gogh traveled by foot to France to visit Jules Breton, an artist whom he admired greatly. Yet upon reaching Breton's home, Van Gogh left having never knocked on the door out of timidity. While this was discouraging, upon returning to the miners Van Gogh began sketching the community and the conditions they faced. This launched his artistic career. He was in his mid-twenties when he began to study art thanks to financial support from his brother. The passion that Van Gogh brought to his art was evident in his life and relationships. He is known for burning his hand at the house of a cousin who refused his advances. He went to her home and her father refused to allow the artist to visit with his daughter. Vincent held his hand over an open flame until he saw the object of his desire. The father simply blew out the lamp. Vincent's life was as colorful and passionate as his artwork. During the upheavals of his private life Van Gogh continued to sketch and eventually picked up a paintbrush. His first great oil painting was The Potato Eaters. Van Gogh's health problems may have included tinnitus, a condition which caused a ringing sensation in his ears. Other health problems could have stemmed from his art materials. Van Gogh lived in a time when the toxicity of art materials was very poorly understood. Van Gogh used the highly toxic color chrome yellow. He also had the dangerous habit of taking a paint brush that he was not currently using on a painting and holding it in his teeth. Thus he could easily have ingested chrome yellow which could have lead to his condition. Mental health issues assailed the artist throughout his final career and yet it was the time of some of his greatest masterpieces. One of the infamous acts Van Gogh did during his periods of dementia was to cut off the lower portion of his left ear while in his artist's studio/home. He wrapped his ear and staggered some distance and presented the severed piece to a female employee of a brothel. Van Gogh returned home and collapsed. The episode nearly ended his life but he did recover and went on to produce masterpieces such as The Sunflowers.
Gogh ModernThe Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam has organized a year of celebrations to mark the special occasion of Van Gogh's 150th Birthday. Currently the museum has on display Gogh Modern: Vincent van Gogh and Contemporary Art which opened in June 2003. The exhibition examines Vincent van Gogh's influence on post-war artists. Both those artists whose styles directly borrowed from his groundbreaking methods and those artists who were uncompromising in their desire to take modern art into a new direction as Vincent van Gogh had done. The exhibition's primary goal is to illustrate that Van Gogh's work remains topical and that Van Gogh still continues to play an important role in contemporary art production. Featured artists in the exhibition include De Kooning, Appel, Kiefer, Warhol, Nauman, Rainer, Abramovic and of course Vincent van Gogh. Gogh Modern reflects themes of color, gesture, man with body and soul, and nature.
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