Reading Van Gogh

[tim atherton]

In many ways I much prefer Gauguin - who was both a great artists AND a great arsehole....

[Saulius]

Being unable to speak to Van Gogh I can only speculate if he was or wasn't a jerk. But having just rewatched the movie Vincent, he does speak in his letters several times about people who "bug" him while he is doing his work. And he also comments how while locked up in an asylum while in the garden the "insane" individuals there know well enough to not bother him while the other people on the outside aren't so respectful. I think many of us can relate to that. Being out somewhere under a dark cloth, trying to compose an image, taking a meter reading, looking at the subject matter in concentration only to have someone come and start talking to you. It may be innocent enough to them but they may not understand how that effects me and what I am trying to do. Some of us have no problem with this, and actually enjoy the conversations. Personally I'd prefer they wait until I appear at least to be done with whatever I am doing. Maybe some of the impressions people got of Van Gogh was caused by their own actions.
From a book entitled Art and Physics - Parallel Visions In Space, Time and Light.

If you are alone you belong entirely to yourself... If you are accompanied by even one companion you belong only half to yourself, or even less, in proportion to the thoughtlessness of his conduct; and if you have more than one companion you will fall more deeply into the same plight. - Leonardo da Vinci

[Nicholas F. Jones]

Belatedly following up on paulr's early post, ... from Joni Mitchell's tour de force of imagery "A Case of You" in the Blue album (1971):

Oh I am a lonely painter
I live in a box of paints

The double live album Miles of Aisles (1974) preserves some stage patter. At one point, fending off fans' requests for her hits, Joni says something like: "No one ever said to Van Gogh 'paint A Starry Night again, man!'" (Trusting my memory on this one, haven't listened to the album since CD's came in).

If we searched, we could probably dredge up some unwelcome things about Mitchell the person, her private life. But isn't it Joni Mitchell the singer-songwriter/painter that creates my/our interest in her? If she indeed live in a box of paints, can we expect her (or anyone else) to get everything else right? I suspect that an unblemished reputation is the result of artifully concealing facts about oneself, ... or the efforts of a good pr agent.

[Mark Sawyer]

Actually, if you want a more realistic insight into Van Gogh's drive and personality, I'd suggest the book "Seized, Temporal Lobe Epilepsy as a Medical, Historical, and Artistic Phenomenon", by Eve La Plante. The first chapter is devoted to Van Gogh.

While he was still alive, Van Gogh was diagnosed with Temporal Lobe Epilepsy, a condition also known as "the Poet's Disease", as it afflicted so many practitioners of that art. Edgar Allen Poe, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Lewis Carroll, Dostoevsky, George Gershwin, Marcel Proust, Oscar Wilde, and quite a few others in the arts were diagnosed with TLE. Understanding how it affects the mind and the creative process is key to understanding both the artist and the art.

Among the noted side-effects of TLE: a heightened sense of religiousity, a compulsive drive to record through writing or visual art, and more liberal firing of neurons in the brain, (which leads to the seizures).

[Kendrick Pereira]

I don't know what has happened to my post of a few minutes ago, but it has disappeared.

I just asked Hugo in which book he found the passage he quoted re: the elderly man befriended by Van Gogh.

[Hugo Zhang]

Kendrick,

The complete Letters of Vincent van Gogh, Volume I, page 223-225, page 420

Hugo

[Hugo Zhang]

Mark,

"Marcel Proust, and quite a few others in the arts were diagnosed with TLE."

Certainly I am surprised to read his name here. Reading him for years, very first time to see TLE linked to him. Any other proof?

Hugo

[tim atherton]

Kendrick,

The complete Letters of Vincent van Gogh, Volume I, page 223-225, page 420

Hugo

I love serendipity - I just brought the whole (what three volume?) boxed set back home from the bookcase at the cottage with the intention of reading them - now sooner rather than later!

[Bill_1856]

Mark,

"Marcel Proust, and quite a few others in the arts were diagnosed with TLE."
Hugo

TLE was a popular diagonsis at the time. Consider it about as accurate as "the vapors."

[Hugo Zhang]

Tim,

That's the same set I am reading. It has been sitting on my bookcase for two years. This time I intend to finish it.

Enjoy!
Hugo