The Clark Art Museum in Massachusetts is showcasing an incredible collection of Van Gogh’s works. Thank you to The Clark, the National Endowment for the Arts, and many other good-willed foundations that make great art like this accessible to smallfries like me!
It was encouraging to see his early drawings and paintings. They looked like beginners’ work (plus a lot of love and a good heart). But 1000 or so pieces later, the master emerges. It was seeing the Hospital at Saint-Remy that made me want to jump up and cheer. “By Jove, you’ve done it, master!”
But it has to be seen. This photo is almost useless, as the beauty of the thing is the true brilliance of the turqouise sky as it merges into cobalt. I love how he lets the colors speak for themselves. Colors are beings! Being is infused into color.
He really moved my spirit. There was a woman standing before the cypress painting and she smiled as my darling niece Aly said, “Aunt Shani when he painted grass he didn’t just paint it one color like with green- he put in lots of other colors!” My nephew Michael and James and I got to talking with her too, and she was saying how she loved the liveliness of the cypress. That Van Gogh was a master because his paintings are still alive and palpably seared with his energy. James pointed out the surprising reds in the foliage, and Michael said there’s some parts that are so simple, and others that are really worked out. We said if this tree was a song, it would be a beautiful one.
When I walked out of the show, tears were streaming from my face. He wrote that he intended to make us feel something, and wished to reconcile humans to the reality of this existence. I love him for it.
Nice to read, beautiful descriptions of insight : )
If Europe\’s not on your radar this year but you want to get a dose of Vincent van Gogh, you can find at least three places in the U.S. this summer that are planning special exhibitions of his work.