"What is the use of a beautiful body, animals have it too... perhaps even more than men... but... the soul, as it lives in the people, that's what animals never have. Is not life given us to become richer in spirit?" - Vincent van Gogh
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I'm watching "Vincent: The Life and Death of Vincent Van Gogh", a film with some of Gogh's letters read by John Hurt. It's excellent.
Vincent is seen as the archetypical "tortured artist", with some justification. But I think it is much more important that his art came from Love of Life, and like he said himself, from Serenity. He never felt sorry for himself, he took the hardships of life as simply the price one paid to reach Higher. And he saw the Light, Love, and Joy behind it all, and that is what he painted.
But I think it is much more important that his art came from Love of Life, and like he said himself, from Serenity. He never felt sorry for himself, he took the hardships of life as simply the price one paid to reach Higher. And he saw the Light, Love, and Joy behind it all, and that is what he painted.
ReplyDeleteI don't know, Big E, people who think and feel like that generally don't kill themselves. Unless he really was ahead of his time, and that was the ultimate performance piece.
Perhaps life *moved* him so much that *the last low* took him over the edge! Do they mention how he *did the deed*? Or...perhaps he was like some of the peeps that we read about, today: mixing too many *things* and it's a *concoction gone very wrong* in the end. :-(
ReplyDeleteA broken heart? I dunno. I haven't seen nor read, yet. You tell us 'cuz now *I* am curious!
Joe,
ReplyDeleteIt's not only possible, but pretty common, to have contradictory feelings.
TC,
He shot himself.
Have you seen the other Vincent movie, "Lust for Life"? I've been meaning to watch it for a few months now. Should get around to it.
ReplyDeleteAlso have you seen the Vincent segment of "Dreams"? I never really thought of Scorsese as an actor, but he did pretty well. Dreams is a great film overall, well worth a re-watch.
Eolake,
ReplyDeleteWas Vincent manic-depressive, or bi-polar?
Loved your joke over on TOP.
Bron
It's not only possible, but pretty common, to have contradictory feelings.
ReplyDeleteIt's pretty clear to even an untrained person that he must have been suffering a serious mental illness of some kind, though even professionals disagree about what it was (and there's no real way to diagnose a dead man). To say he merely suffered the kind of mood swings or "contradictory feelings" that most people do is grossly inaccurate and a huge generalization - so much so that it's meaningless.
"Lust for Life" is excellent. I blogged it at some point, search.
ReplyDeleteJoe: yes, almost meaningless, but no more meaningless than that observation that because he killed himself, his art couldn't have been about joy and beauty.
Sure, it's a discussion which would take several thick volumes at least, but it seems clear to me that you can easily have strong experiences of joy and love, *and* of pain and misery in the same person.
Bronislaus Janulis
ReplyDelete(How do I say that easier without calling you "BJ"?),
I am very leery of the application of medical labels to people from a distance, without any medical examination of them.
And especially to "explain" artists or other eccentrics.
Eolake,
ReplyDeleteBron works just fine.
I understand about diagnosis from a distance, but we're not going to be medicating him.
Vincent, for me falls into the category of people who I'm enamored of, but pretty sure I wouldn't want to spend a lot of time with. Ernest Hemingway, Norman Mailer, Vincent, Pablo P., Me. I find me pretty damn insufferable sometimes. Analyze that.
Eolake,
ReplyDeleteEvery time I think of "change comes..." I start laughing.
Thanks!
Bron
OK, Bron, you can throw me in there too. I can be very sociable, but only with the few people who interest me, and even then even for a very limited time.
ReplyDeleteThat's one of the reasons I couldn't be a family man.
I better admit I stole the joke from the book _The Disappearance Of The Universe_ by Gary Renard.
ReplyDeleteMike gave the first half:
A buddhist says to a hot dog vendor:
"make me one with everything."
As the buddist leaves with his hot dog, he holds out his hand, but the vendor says:
"Change comes from within."
Well, I'm pretty sure my family would agree with you about ME.
ReplyDeleteStole a joke, eehhh?
Weeelllll, it was a good one.
Bron
Bron said...
ReplyDelete"I find me pretty damn insufferable sometimes. Analyze that."
Funny! Yes...as Eo said, I think we can ALL count ourselves in on that one! lol! I appreciate your canor about it, though, Bron. :-)
but no more meaningless than that observation that because he killed himself, his art couldn't have been about joy and beauty.
ReplyDeleteI've read over all the comments here, and can't seem to find anyone who said or even implied that this was true. Strange.
"his art couldn't have been about joy and beauty. "
ReplyDeleteThere have to be people who though depressed can do things that are abouot hapiness & beuty.......maybe remember when they felt like that and/or wishing they could
There certainly have been depressed people who have done that. I wasn't actually saying that his art couldn't be about that, just that he wasn't necessarily feeling that himself at the time, and that it's not necessary to feel it yourself in order to make others feel it.
ReplyDelete