Vincent, could you have imagined?

Thanks to heatherleys.blogspot.com

Self-Portrait, 1889

Thanks to vggallery.com

Self-Portrait (Dedicated to Paul Gauguin), 1888.

Thanks to vggallery.com

I was forwarded a link to this blog which explained the work:

When asked about this project [John] Dean explained he originally set out to make a single monochrome bust. He says he was intrigued by an enigmatic self-portrait painted in Arles in September 1888 which Vincent intended to send to Paul Gauguin. ‘Van Gogh’s distinctive draughtsmanship and his technique of applying thick pigment to the canvas was almost sculptural. The image seemed to be yearning to be liberated from the two dimensional surface restraining it. I wanted to find out what might happen if it were released’ said Dean.

Thanks to heatherleys.blogspot.com

Self-Portrait, 1888.

Thanks to vggallery.com

Self-Portrait with Grey Felt Hat, 1887-1888.

Thanks to vggallery.com

I have always found Vincent’s work sculptural, but these busts seem to heighten the intensity of his gaze — and certainly the fact that they are all life-sized would add a very unique element when standing in front of them. One of these busts has been incorporated into the London exhibit of his letters (click to see several wonderful scans of his letters, with sketches).

Thanks to heatherleys.blogspot.com

Self-Portrait with Straw Hat, 1887.

Thanks to vggallery.com

Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear and Pipe, 1889.

Thanks to vggallery.com

Even the artist’s expression seems  to divulge a kind of joyous marveling at the outcome of his work, as though he could never have dreamed the power of what he produced. From the same blog:

Once the head was made however, Dean knew that to complete it he had to incorporate the artist’s brush strokes and the striking use of colour, including yellow, turquoise and purple, from the original portrait. ‘It is unusual for a sculpture to be painted as the effect is generally merely decorative. In this case though, I realised the colours and brushwork had to be included as they were integral and essential to the work.’

I thoroughly enjoy the translation of Vincent’s impasto, or thickly laid paint, into the textural surface of these busts. I’m also a little envious of the idea of molding his face, digging my fingers into the crevices of his brushwork, and feeling and re-creating his rhythm and his facial features with my hands. It would be very close to sensation of touching his face, or perhaps touching his dream of his face…

Seeing this work reminded me of a dance I choreographed over a year ago now – it was an early experiment that proved pretty successful. One of my greatest desires with my theater piece is to translate the passion of Vincent’s methods, the speed and depth of his brushwork, the daring of his colors, into movement. As John Dean said, Vincent’s paint and images almost burst out of their frames; I think what makes people fall for Vincent’s work is that they reach toward the viewer, as opposed to other paintings that invite the viewer to look in, as though through a window. Just as Dean sought to liberate the images from their two dimensions, I seek to launch them out of their impassivity.

So today, I offer a look at one of my early forays into dances for Vincent. Three women and I worked collaboratively for three hours, and created this piece. I stayed on the outside so I could shape it, but I will be performing in my own play this summer. It was inspired by the last ten paintings Vincent created.

Reader, Vincent… enjoy. :)

(Oh, and I finished my second draft of my play last friday! Woohoo!)

Thanks to vangoghmuseum.nl

Johanna van Gogh-Bonger

Today I’d like to take a moment to honor one of the most important and most forgotten figures in Vincent’s work and life: Jo van Gogh-Bonger. Lovely, lovely Jo.

Jo married Theo van Gogh, Vincent’s brother, on May 2nd, 1889. Since Vincent died July 29th, 1890, Jo only met Vincent on a few occasions, all within the last three months of his life. She wrote him a handful of letters that speak for themselves. Here are her first words to him:

Dearest brother,                                                           8 May 1889

It’s high time that your new little sister came to chat with you and didn’t always just let Theo convey her regards. When we weren’t married yet I always thought: Well, I don’t really dare to write to Vincent about everything yet, but now we really have become brother and sister, and I would so much like you to know me a little and, if possible, love me a little.

For my part — it’s been the case for a long time — I’ve heard so much about you, both from Wil and from Theo — and here in the house there are masses of things that are reminders of you, when I find a nice little jug or a vase or something, then it’s always: Vincent bought that or V. liked that so much — scarcely a day passes when we don’t speak of you. [full letter]

Thanks to vangoghletters.org

Now, not only did this woman have a very sweet soul, but she also gave birth to Vincent Willem van Gogh (what a name to carry…), Theo’s son, on the 31st of January 1890. Vincent Willem ended up with all the paintings Jo had kept by her death in 1925, and in 1960 the Vincent van Gogh Foundation was founded based on their enormous family treasure; it still houses the largest collection of Vincent van Gogh’s work – “some 200 paintings, 500 drawings and 700 letters, as well as the artist’s own collection of Japanese prints” as they put it. But Jo is much more than the mother of Vincent’s nephew and heir. (Although, this photo of Vincent Willem in 1952 is positively delightful)

Thanks to vangoghletters.org

Theo inherited all of Vincent’s work upon his death (this was an unanimous family decision given that Theo had supported Vincent for almost the entirety of his ten-year artistic career), and then when Theo died six months later, Jo inherited everything.

I often consider Jo at that moment, who had been married for only a year and a half, given birth to a son and named him after her brother-in-law, her husband’s closest friend, and then watched both her husband and his brother die in the year following her son’s birth. Jo was 29 years old, quite alone, left with a one year old baby, hundreds of paintings and drawings and letters. What does Jo do?

In November 1891, ten months after her husband’s death, she wrote in her diary:

Besides the child he [Theo] has bequeathed me another task – Vincent’s work – to get it seen and appreciated as much as possible; keeping all the treasures that Theo and Vincent had collected intact for the child – that, too, is my work.

Within the next few months, she resolved to organize all of the letters Theo had kept of Vincent’s, to edit, translate, and publish them. This task, creating the first complete publication of the letters between Theo and Vincent, would take her twenty-two years. That’s over twice as long as Vincent spent painting.

Now while there were certain passages suppressed and certain liberties taken to protect some individuals (all of which was quite normal for the publication of letters at the time), no one can doubt the enormity of her undertaking… Most of the letters had no date and her notes reveal she had a very difficult time finding the correct order (and she was still wrong on various points). It is additionally astounding that she financed the publication herself. It would be seven years before she recouped the cost, let alone made a profit from her publication. And while she was organizing, editing and translating, she also endlessly promoted Vincent’s work through exhibitions and sales. What would have happened if it weren’t for Jo? I believe that she, more than anyone other single figure, secured Vincent’s legacy. Theo kept Vincent alive, Jo kept him remembered.

However, what always strikes me deep in my heart is what she did upon completing this incredible project. When Theo died in 1891, he had been buried in Utrecht, in the Netherlands, in his homeland. In 1914, Jo had Theo’s remains moved to Auvers-sur-Oise, where he could rest forever at Vincent’s side.

Thanks to wikipedia.org

And in their death they were not divided. (2 Samuel 1:23)

That was your motto for the publication of all the letters, Jo.

On behalf of so many, I would like to thank you. Thank you for your love, your dedication, your time, your energy… Thank you, Jo, for saving him. I really believe you did.

But the commodification, the misinterpretation, the drama, the mythology of Van Gogh is all important, and I have eventually come to embrace it. For Vincent van Gogh created one enormous thing without a drop of intention, and that is his Myth. Van Gogh is perhaps a name with as many resonances as Ghandi, probably less than Hitler, but certainly more than FDR or Genghis Khan (and I refer to the resonances with the general population… I finally met someone who did not know who Vincent van Gogh was this past week and it about knocked my socks off). What Vincent did is in no way comparable to what these other men did, but his actions, his life, his influence has reached far and wide like a pebble’s ripple in a pool. Except that those ripples gained a force of their own, and continue to roar across cultural oceans.

What I love to look at now are the many iterations, the many re-fashionings and re-imaginings of Vincent/Van Go, and smile at the infinitely deep well of inspiration this man has become. He has become much greater than he ever could have imagined – he is sometimes so immense I wonder if I will ever know him all. As I once wrote in my journal: His life was the birth of a universe in an egg shell. I still believe that whole heartedly.

From Halloween costumes (this one is particularly well done)

Thanks to wtfcostumes.com

to NASA comparing the illumination of interstellar dust around this star to one of his paintings

Thanks to hubblesite.org

to hotel suites modeled after his paintings

Thanks to design.nl

to credit cards

Thanks to tagesanzeiger.ch

to shoes with quotes from his letters on them,

and cartoons,

Thanks to neatorama.com and bizzaro.com

and dolls with removable ears

Thanks to philosophersguild.com

or removable heads

Thanks to baronbob.com

to books (an Amazon search reveals almost 2,000) and movies (Amazon shows 22 results for movies and television, but I’m sure there are more out there that one cannot buy) and short films ranging from the more realist Vincent’s Final Moments to the surrealist Vincent and Absinthe

to the iPhone application Yours, Vincent which puts his letters and sketches at your fingertips

Thanks to iphonespies.com

to University investigations into which star Vincent painted in The White House at Night, 1890

Thanks to hermitagemuseum.org

(it was Venus, and it was precisely in that spot the night he painted it, by the way)

to songs, both the lesser known and the famous –

It becomes irrefutable that Vincent is a universe, a mountain worth climbing and full of ever-branching caverns. I am lucky enough to consider myself an explorer of all things that trace their root to him. The portrayals of this man and his work in all its iterations are not necessarily historically accurate, but they reflect what Vincent van Gogh truly means to those that reflect him back at the world and inevitably spread his words, his paintings, his life to those that did not know him at all.

In this way, Vincent van Gogh is still very much alive to me. He is an idea, a spirit that is still developing, still changing, still reaching out…