Van Gogh only sold one painting in his lifetime. “The Red Vineyard” sold in Brussels a few months before his death for just 400 Francs.
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VVG is universally loved. I recommend the Dafoe movie very highly.
Vincent was much like The Elephant man. Kids in Arles would rap on his window, at the little yellow house, and mock him. They’d throw cabbages at his on the streets. If you saw him approaching on the sidewalk, you’d cross the street to avoid passing him. he stank of filth, and was generally rude or weird to anyone who wasn’t a direct friend. if you were his friend, he was intelligent, witty and bizarre.
This is why I don’t buy into the Dr Who episode. He was not good company. And, that’s sad.
Pass the potatoes!
We saw the Van Gogh exhibit at the London Tate last summer.
I could’ve spent all day there. Shame I didn’t.
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears….
His paintings are beautiful, I had the pleasure of standing in front of one once in Denver. Gorgeous texture.
However, being a life long glass artist(68) in my book the American artist, Louis Comfort Tiffany is responsible for the most goose bump producing art I’ve ever had the luxury to see. Did he personally craft 1,000s of leaded windows, shades and other priceless works of art? Of course not but he was at the Studio and Corona every day making sure the work produced was what he envisioned.
There was also this fellow in Italy who commanded several mediums, one of which was sculpture. I had the unforgettable experience at the age of 13 to ride a moving sidewalk in a dark room in front of the only illuminated object in that room. It was the Pieta and it blew my young mind.
I think calling any man “the greatest artist who ever lived” just ain’t right.
I walk past Louis Comfort Tiffany’s gravesite frequently;
it is surprisingly plain and unadorned, and not in a prominent location.
https://images.findagrave.com/photos/2018/311/2957_fc2d6778-f76f-4019-ab06-1fa1a5714adc.jpeg
He designed many other grave markers in the same cemetery which are what you would have expected his own to look like.
https://www.green-wood.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/tiffany.chapman.alfred.jpg
One of the earliest battles of the American Revolution was fought on these grounds, nearly sixty-five years before the cemetery opened….
the Battle of Long Island on August 27, 1776.
The first wall hanging we newlyweds hung in our furnished apartment in ’55 was a Sunflowers print, just like ‘leventy million other newlyweds did back then. Seemed like every neighbor and friend we visited had either that one or the blue one, Irises I think it was, hung on their LR wall. Lust for Life came out about that time and we dutifully plunked down our 50¢ each and watched it. Van Gogh was big in our mid-50s world.
I highly recommend the movie ‘Loving Vincent’ – 95 minutes of oil-painted animation. Truly beautiful.
That was well done!
I quite agree Casey Klahn, but I gotta throw in a yea but;
Vincent may have been, OK, was, rude crude, strange and stank to high heaven but that Dr. Who scene comes very close to art surpassing life and TV being art. The staging, timing, camera angles and dialog, etc., were quite superb.
Also it allows me the conceit that just maybe one of my paintings that I’ve traded for beer in a bar might, someday, actually move someone! -grin-
I think that was the sweetest episode of the Doctor.
When you walk into the modern/impressionist section of the Getty in L.A., his Irises pops out and grabs your eye before anything else in the room.
Hi, James ONeil. Very happy for the discussion. My teenage daughter is a big VVG fan, and her defense is that the DW scene imagines him being honored by his exhibition, and so why not extend the fantasy? For my part, I just want those interested to know the extent of his mental plight and, anyway, I never do well with “crazy person as hero” movies because…fucking crazy people are essentially doing time in hell. It ain’t glamorous (my mother was one such person).
BTW, M. van Gogh is my number three fave artist of all time. I encourage any and all media about him. I had to put down the Smith Naifeh biography of him. Too gay. The oil painting movie I liked but didn’t love. The movies that did well were Lust for Life and At Eternity’s Gate.
A fantastic book is 9 Weeks in Arles. How many steps there were between the adjacent cafe and the yellow house (of his bedroom fame). Hpw close was the whore house where he delivered his ear? What did he eat for breakfast? All of this, but not a dull moment ever. Martin Gayford.
Quite agree Casey, your fave artists choice. I often play with the 3 most underappreciated 20th century artists, who, decades later, will be considered game changers. I’ll mention Rockwell, Dali and Bob Ross as such & it always leads to interesting discussions, & no, I never defend my choices, just let the conversation revolve around them.
Crazy folks; no, not as heroes but as just folks tryin’ to get through the day, like the rest of us. Give then a hand when you can, move back at arm’s length when necessary and never ever throw cabbages at them.
I’m curious, Casey. You said you put down the Smith/Naifeh biography because it was too “gay’? I’ve got the book nearby on a shelf. Have been meaning to get to it for a few years, and I will. The authors are gay… or were. One of them died. I can’t recall whom. What turned you off about the book? I visit goodreads to get a gist of public reaction before I crack a tome, but you being a painter I’d like to know what you thought about the book… and your perception of Vincent that didn’t jive with what you were reading.
I thought this article from a few years back was pretty cool. A search was launched to find the most Vincent-looking man alive. This effort resulted with Daniel Baker of Christchurch, England stepping forward. https://iamvincent.com