Another beauty
Vincent’s life used to advertise an investment firm in South Africa – do you know how to recognize a good investment?
It’s actually a pretty well-done video!
Coronation Fund Mana..Many thanks to reader Marion BE for the find!
Thu, September 17 2009 » Popular Culture » 3 Comments
Everything the Kröller-Müller Museum can offer you
I spoke about the Kröller-Müller Museum in a previous post, while I was there, but at the time I could not offer any photos. This museum is probably one of my favorites in the whole world now, not just because it emerged from the largest private collection of Vincent’s work ever, but because it is situated in the exquisite National Park the Hoge Veluwe in Gelderland (that’d be south-east Netherlands), which consists of about 13,600 acres of wilderness (or 5,500 hectares). While Vincent’s hometown was a bit west of here, I still found many, many vistas that reminded me of him and his work.
A beautiful forest greeted me on the west end of the park, and then it was a four kilometer bike ride to the museum, nestled in its heart. On the way there, you saw this:
Alright, alright enough of the park already! I wish I could share all of my photos in this entry, but there are way too many. If you want to see more, be sure to click on any of the photos to take you to the photo album.
So, I’m already pretty overwhelmed by the views, and then I get to the museum, and to Vincent. I’ve rarely felt like I was drowning in beauty before, but I have never felt so creatively exhausted as I did that day (I had, of course, taken a train from Amsterdam that morning, but that’s besides the point).
Finally, I give you, some of my photos of Vincent…
Wheat stack under a cloudy sky (July 1890)
Normally, I scoff at those who try to equate Vincent’s passionate brushwork with mental anguish (he writes again and again in his letters that he feels most at peace when he paints, and cannot paint at all when he is ill), but this painting, the first I saw, broke my heart a bit. It was made in the last month of his life, and there is something uncontrolled, muddy and impatient in his work here, particularly in the foreground, that hurt to look at…
The rest, however, is masterly.
The garden of the asylum at Saint-Remy (May 1889)
I love how two-thirds of this painting consists of the blossoming trees.
Wheatfield with Reaper and Sun (late June 1889)
Almost can’t find the reaper here… so much yellow! And my, how it sings…
Self-Portrait (April – June 1887)
It is only after my trip to Europe that I truly began to know his face: the blue-green eyes, the high cheekbones, the bent nose and red hair that pops. Also, his gaze: steady, curious, vulnerable…
Rose and Peonies (June 1886)
He quite often signed his work in red, usually to set off and accentuate the green in the composition – red’s complementary color. Also, this rose totally reminded me of the rose from the day before in Amsterdam.
God, I love his piles of paint. This one is just a whirlpool of pink vertigo.
Portrait of Joseph-Michel Ginoux (December 1888)
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a print of this painting before, and is it ever striking in person! I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was in fact looking at the real man…
Road with cypress and star (May 1890)
Always a couple in the foreground, and a cypress as the bridge between heaven and earth…
I end this entry with one of his stars.
If you enjoyed the photos, don’t forget to explore the rest (I have 87 photos from that day!) by clicking on any one of them here.
Happy Monday. :)
Mon, September 14 2009 » Photo entries, Research, Travel » 5 Comments
Stolen Van Gogh sketch found on sale in New Mexico for $250
Here’s the article on the Santa Fe news website yesterday, and my favorite excerpts:
A Vincent Van Gogh drawing stolen from a Santa Fe home in May was recovered Thursday from a consignment shop in Raton, where it was on sale for $250, police said.
[…]
The Van Gogh drawing was a sketch for the artist’s later painting, The Night Café. The black-and-white drawing looks exactly like the finished painting, except the drawing doesn’t have Van Gogh’s signature, the owner told The New Mexicanin August.
Police estimated the drawing was worth about $200,000 in August, though the owner said that number was far below the work’s value and “not even remotely accurate.”
The owner said his great-grandfather originally bought the drawing and that it had been in his family for three generations.
I find this particularly interesting due to the theme of value. Vincent’s work has become a commodity, objects especially worthy of robbery followed by a quiet, under-priced resale out of sheer desperation during the months of a recession.
I think of the value this little drawing had for you when you made it; it was a study most likely never meant to be sold.
I think of the value for the owner – who claims $200,000 is not even remotely accurate (because it is “a Van Gogh”? because it was a family heirloom? because of the owner’s personal associations with the drawing? And then, how do we put a price on these things: on fame, on the past, on emotions?)
I think of the fact that it was treasured and passed down three generations. I think of how you are valuable now, so unlike how you and everything you made were treated during your life.
Fri, September 11 2009 » Popular Culture » No Comments