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Article: A flesh look at Van Gogh.
- Article from:
- New Criterion
- Article date:
- December 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Foundation for Cultural Review. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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It takes effort to come to grips with the paintings of Vincent van Gogh. Seemingly every aspect of his brief career--roughly ten years--and his short life--he killed himself at thirty-six--has been so thoroughly probed, analyzed, documented, and even popularized that it's almost impossible to see his best known efforts. Despite the obvious intensity of feeling that emanates from Van Gogh's paintings, it's difficult to ignore the horrible familiarity of those writhing sunflowers and thick-set figures, those tipped interiors and sun-baked landscapes, in order to confront them freshly and directly. It's not easy to get past the distancing layers of association surrounding ...