What are You Looking at?

[Cockney Sparrow]

A word that could combine Vincent Van Gogh’s Provençal style and mental state is ‘vibration’, encapsulating the dynamic, ecstatic quality of the paintings that channel and depict his heightened perturbation. The images shimmer and shake. To mark its 200th birthday, the National Gallery has put on its first show of his works ‘Van Gogh Poets and Lovers’ that covers that two year period up to his suicide that were made during his time in Provence. And what a show it is.

First, to give huge credit to its curating, and the superb catalogue, with its learned essays. There is no tongue-clicking, finger-wagging censoriousness, so fashionable at the ‘other place’, that reproves Van Gogh’s use of prostitutes, or his early days as Protestant lay preacher (with all those nasty links with slavery); rather, the information gives the painting’s title, the year of its making and its owner, we are left to make up our own minds as to what the picture is about. How refreshing, how adult.

But the thing is the works themselves, which seem to erupt from their frames in a riot of vibrant colour. Those colours have undoubtedly changed over the years - have you ever seen oranges and lemons that colour - would you be tempted to eat them? What is noticeable nevertheless is how ‘unrealistic’ the use of colour is, and here the influence of Gauguin is evident (who’s radical stature among artists was established, although not among the art-buying public), even prior to his disastrous stay in Arles. The ‘Portrait of a Peasant’ (one Patience Escalier) has a scrubby white beard flecked with green and a grizzled ruddy face and rheumy red eyes; and yet the complementary use of green and red gives a harmony and vitality to the image. ‘Wheatfield, with Cypresses’ captures and synthesises movement on multiple scales, from the tactile undulations of wheat in a gentle breeze, through the twisting cypresses, the undulations of the distant cumulus-like mountains to the violent contortions of the clouds above them; it’s a glorious painting.

So the show is filled with the colours of summer to gladden the eye in dreary, dark November. On until January.

Just returned from the cinema showing of the "Exhibition on Screen". It has exposition by two of the curators, an art critic and Lachlan Goudie, artist, writer, broadcaster. I could see the pictures without heads or mobile phones, and decent steady showing of the paintings, then close ups sometimes, and yes, exposition. I'd already been advised to forgo the audio guide by a friend who found it not much use, and relied on the exhibition booklet which had some more detail than others have had when I saw the exhibition in person. I mightily enjoyed both experiences. I'm not sure I can spare the time to see the exhibition again - although I would dearly like to. I will certainly buy the DVD when it appears in a while (as did for the Vermeer):

https://seventh-art.com/product/van-gogh-poets-lovers/

[Padraig]

If you had got today's Observer and gone to the puzzle picture in the Review you would have read the following:

'Last week's detail showed the beautifully painted scrap of white cloth in the hands of the eponymous Portrait of a Seated Woman with a Handkerchief c 1644, long thought to be by Rembrandt. This Dutch woman is all warmth and energy, leaning dynamically forward in her chair. It is no surprise, given their similar features, that she has generally been identified as Aaltje van Uylenburgh, cousin of Rembrandt's wife, Saskia. But the date and signature are probably forgeries. and the luminous painting of flesh and cloth, the brightness of the light and the wonderful portrait of the wall behind her have led to a more recent attribution to Carel Fabritius, master of The Goldfinch.'

Sorry, you tube unhelpful for pictures. I hope you can access the Observer.

But, I'll take the opportunity to recommend the novel The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, which I have read and enjoyed. I must say how delighted I was to bump into Carel Fabritius and Donna Tartt quite unexpectedly today! And to join up two Arts threads.

[vinteuil]

... The Goldfinch / .../ I must say how delighted I was to bump into Carel Fabritius

... in the Sunday Times a lovely piece by Waldemar Januszczak, who is not only one of their art critics but also a serious bird-watcher : he writes of his joy in watching birds in real life, and talks about birds in pictures - including :

"Goldfinches pop up often in Renaissance art, in Nativity scenes or cradled by the baby Jesus. It’s because they have a bright splash of red on their chin and forehead, as if they have dipped their beaks into a bowl of blood. In Nativities they prefigure Jesus’s bloody death on the Cross. When Carel Fabritius painted his famous picture of a goldfinch chained to its perch he was probably painting something secretly religious: a symbolic Crucifixion."

[Padraig]

... in the Sunday Times a lovely piece by Waldemar Januszczak,[/I]

Much appreciated, M v.

[gurnemanz]

A word that could combine Vincent Van Gogh’s Provençal style and mental state is ‘vibration’, encapsulating the dynamic, ecstatic quality of the paintings that channel and depict his heightened perturbation. The images shimmer and shake. To mark its 200th birthday, the National Gallery has put on its first show of his works ‘Van Gogh Poets and Lovers’ that covers that two year period up to his suicide that were made during his time in Provence. And what a show it is...

... the superb catalogue ...

So the show is filled with the colours of summer to gladden the eye in dreary, dark November. On until January.

When my wife suggested going to this exhibition I replied casually that we could give it a miss. Luckily, she rejected my foolishness and we booked a slot just before Christmas. We made a day of it by going to the marvellous Silk Roads show at the British Museum in the morning (also still on). The exhibition was unmissable thanks to the number of pictures on show from various galleries around the world that we would hardly get to see otherwise and to the thrilling impact of the brushstrokes, colour and composition. Though quite full it was possible to arrange a circuit which avoided bottlenecks.

We almost never buy exhibition catalogues (... expensive, no room on the shelf) but on this occasion I managed to buy this one secretly to give to my wife as a Christmas present.