Art Of The Day Weekly

#438 - from 7 July 2016 to 7 September 2016

Van Gogh, in praise of madness

AMSTERDAM – Madness and art are often in twine. We can count on such a number of depressive, paranoid or suicidal artists, starting with Piero di Cosimo, going on to Camille Claudel and Nicolas de Staël, and beyond. In this galaxy, Van Gogh has a special place, turned into a myth by Hollywood and Kirk Douglas. In December 1888, while he was hosting Gauguin at his home in Arles, a terrible dispute broke out between the two men and Van Gogh cut off part of his ear lobe and offered it to a prostitute. Two years later, in Auvers-sur-Oise, he committed suicide with a gun. This period was marked by ostracism (as a petition by residents of Arles asked he be interned), hospitalisation (in particular at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence) and ’introspection (in his correspondence, he wonders about his illness). But it is also his most productive. Over a period of thirty months, he frenetically painted some 200 paintings! This exhibition opens this part of his life by presenting the works of that period, in particular his very last work, Tree Roots. They resemble tortured synapses. New elements, such as letters and documents kept at the Arles municipal archives will be shown. Was he a manic-depressive, epileptic, a victim of his high consumption of absinthe or did he suffer from porphyria, like King George III of England? Specialists will hold a symposium on 15 September to try to finally untangle the knot of Van Gogh’s brain.
On the Verge of Insanity. Van Gogh and his Insanity at the Van Gogh museum from 15 July to 25 September 2016.

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