Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Van Gogh Museum: Works From a Tortured Visionary



            The Van Gogh museum artfully chronicles the evolution of an artist. While the absence of many of his most famous works slightly detracts for the overall vision of what Vincent Van Gogh was truly capable of, the huge number of works housed in this one museum tell an intricate story of artistic discovery. The inclusion of many of his inspirations add detail to the ten year narrative of his painting career.
            Van Gogh's earliest work intermingles with an equal number of his inspirations. Works that inspired Van Gogh appear throughout the entire collection, but the highest concentration is well-placed amongst the artist's earliest works when he was forming his identity as a painter. The self portraits by Gaugin and Bernard featuring cameos by one another may feel out of place at first glance as the styles are far from Van Gogh's exuberant impressionism, but portraits Van Gogh and Gaugin painted of each other follow immediately. Seeing the direct influence of other painters on Van Gogh's work concisely and memorably supports the story of his early eagerness to learn and develop as a new painter.
            The brown and beige tones of Van Gogh's next stage are the most unexpected parts of the museum. These dark, honest paintings of country life culminate with the acclaimed Potato Eaters. When compared with his other famous masterpieces such as Starry Night or The Bedroom, Potato Eaters may seem out of place. Van Gogh's signature broad strokes and bold highlights remain, but his psychedelic colors and swirling combinations are nowhere to be seen. In the context of his work of the same time, though, Potato Eaters is the finest example of a large body of darker work. Paintings featuring workers and homes just like that in Potato Eaters precede it and provide a fuller picture of the work that went into providing food for the table in the modest house. This section of the museum, though a world away from Van Gogh's typical colorful work, is perhaps the most enlightening of his development as an artist. It includes one of his most famous masterpieces alongside some of his more humble experiments, and without the distraction of fantastical color, the viewer may fully focus on the developing technique of this celebrated artist.
            Two floors above Potato Eaters resides the work of Van Gogh's prime. A startling departure from the modesty and restraint of his beige period, these paintings burst with color and movement. Here, paintings like Self-Portrait as an Artist remind the viewer of why this man is remembered years after his death. Even at first glance, the piece screams out its author. Not only is he the subject of the work, but Van Gogh fully embraces the daring color and segmented strokes that made him famous. His bright blue jacket is populated by jarring yellow highlights and even his skin tone is made from strokes from all over the rainbow. Just beside this self-portrait hangs The Bedroom, another example of Van Gogh's incredible vision. The bold and distorted room jumps off the canvas towards the crowd jostling for another look at this masterpiece. These two pieces are just two highlights of a room filled with audacious palettes and extraordinary forms by a master painter in his prime.
            The final stage of Van Gogh's career is well introduced by a quotation by the artist himself: "I feel--a failure." While the works are by no means actual failures, there is a clear depression from the life and originality of previous years. Had the paintings been placed alongside those from his prime, a viewer might gather they were pre-cursors to the greatest works, records of an artist finding his feet. Instead, they are a picture of an artist losing his footing. Just feet from the masterpiece Irises hang several still-lifes of flowers that leave the viewer unchanged and unexcited. The color combinations are disingenuous, imitations of past successes. A great exception to the disappointment of this period is Sunset at Montjamor. The trees and hills swirl with the vibrancy one would expect from the creator of Starry Night. The color palette is somewhat more restricted, focusing on oranges and greens. The limit of the palette signals the beginning of Van Gogh's more subdued period, but maintains enough life to create a distinct atmosphere. This painting is nostalgic, both of the orange light covering these trees and fields, and of a time when color and movement came easier to the visionary painter.
            Though the museum offers a somewhat somber ending to the incredible journey of Van Gogh's career, the overall vibrancy and variety of the collection is the ultimate take-away. For a man who actively worked for a mere decade, this artist created a massive body of work that has stood the test of time. The division of his career's stages is the greatest success of the museum, as his development is clearest when works are viewed in stages. The art ultimately speaks for itself, works from a tortured visionary.

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