Van Gogh

Van Gogh
(Tr. Spa-Eng. from a review by karumbei)

 At the beginning, painting as a means of revolution, then art as discovery of the truth, the artist's gesture to capture life. Van Gogh is passion, despair, febrile vitality. Impossible to imprison him between the cultural movements of the era, from Impressionism to Symbolism, Van Gogh indeed receives influence of these trends, which contribute to his formation, but he re-works them through a personal vision, to give life to a unique and unmistakable style.

 The grieving correspondence with his beloved brother Theo, published by the sister-in-law to the death of Vincent, unveils us his journey of formation, showing that the personal sphere is indissoluble from the artistic sphere. He exercises in drawing thanks to a self-study course, and in 1881, after his cousin Mauve's lessons, he performs his first oil paintings.The Dutch countryside and country people are his predominant subjects, portraits with a dark range of colors to represent the embodiment of a tough and vigorous life, but genuine.

 In Paris in 1886, with Delacroix' theory of colors and his admiration for Rubens' paintings, Vincent begins to clarify his palette and turn it lively. They are very keen years pointing him to develop and experiment. The Parisian cultural environment reveals very fruitful, as also the contact with the most innovative painters, first among all Gauguin.

 However, the city is not the right atmosphere for Vincent, and in 1888 he moves to Arles. And it is in Arles that Van Gogh finally finds his style, with the use of different strokes and expressiveness of color, he gets a unique and emotive painting. The representation of reality is based not in the visual sense, but in the fusion of the psychic perception, and the contrast as the fusion of colors, the distortion of forms, which transmit his mood to the canvas. 

 His troubled life and his strong sensitivity get him subject to frequent crises. It is likely that he suffered from epileptic attacks, crises were most intense in the periods of depression and irritability. The episode of his left ear cutting is representative of his despair. Vincent was aware of his illness, enough as to take refuge in a psychiatric hospital instead of finding a cure. Until, in July 1890, terrified by the idea of new attacks, shot himself with a pistol, and dies two days later at his home on the night of July 29.