Adventures of Mark and Stu: Van Gogh

The Van Gogh Museum

Is it Van Gock? (Ask a Brit.) is it Van Go? (Ask a Yank). Or is it Fahn -- ? (We don't make that sound in English unless there is something stuck in your throat.) If you picked the third choice, you may be correct. It is funny when you hear the actual names of paintings and artists in their native tongues. it never occurs to you there is another name for that.

The last time I was there, the Van Gogh Museum was being renovated so the admission was half price. (If you are Dutch, you can understand my excitement.) It is a common joke that the Dutch are cheap. In reality, it is part stereotype, part badge of honor. This time there was a huge pretty building with a small collection. Believe it or not, it enhanced the experience. You could forget the nagging urge to see everything and take your time. You were also not allowed to take photos. My illegal pics look like shite.

My greatest complaint about Van Gogh is his stupid ear. Tabloids sell. Everyone loves to talk about his ear and there is an entire exhibit devoted to the incident. He became popular after at self-inflicted gun wound that took his life at 37. If guns down kill people, perhaps sunflowers do? I promise, no more politics here. Message me in private. I seldom share this, but I am dealing with depression and a few other niceties. Van Gogh's life evokes introspection. Who would he have been without his illness? Who would Stephen Hawking have been without all the down time? We are creations of our blessings and our demons. I often think, If I had only done that when I was younger and realize I would have never met Stu. Life does not work that way. You don't get your cake and eat it too. Well, maybe a couple pieces but not the whole cake.

Van Gogh early pieces included The Potato Eaters. I think it refers to the miners closer to where I an currently sitting in Belgium's coal country. (My posts are never really up to date.) Originally he was a fire and brimstone preacher before he became an artist. The Potato Eaters is dark and gloomy with stylized faces huddled around a small light eating well, you already know. He decided/was told he needed more training. I look at the picture and think, Wow he just needed more exposure. It was all there already. David Gregar comes to mind. The guy was brilliant in my kindergarten. I still recall a drawing of two orange snakes intertwined. To my knowledge, David still has two intact ears.

There is an episode in the new Doctor Who! where the Doctor sees a sign that he needs to visit Vincent. The episode does a great job of describing the man I've read about. He is a pariah because he tries to constantly sell his unwelcome art for more drink and is unstable. The episode adds the sci fi element that he is haunted by a monster than only he can see. The man is vulnerable in a way we seldom get to see people. You want to hug him. In a cute plot twist, the Doctor's companion keeps filling the apartment with sunflowers as a less than subtle hint that she wants a painting. From what I learned about Vincent, I can call him Vincent, can't I? Sunflowers were a religious expression for the man rather than just pretty paintings. Personally, I prefer his irises which have apparently turned color over the years. New paint creations did not always age as expected.

There is an intimate exhibit with letters between he and his brother Theo. None of them are in English but are in fine print. I couldn't make out the characters. Fortunately, the exhibit had phones with narrators reading the letters. His brother so deeply loved his brother. Theo was his greatest fan. (My mother was mine.) Theo believed in Vincent, cared for Vincent, and completely got Vincent. Vincent's letters to Theo had a child-like quality about them. For a man struggling with such deep and dark demons, the letters possessed a kind innocence that is replaced by cynicism as we age. He was so excited about everything he was learning from color and light to his new friends in Paris including the misfits Toulouse Lautrec and Paul Gauguin. Sidetrack. Stu had an ex whom I dislike. The man passed away before I met Stu. Stu never has had a harsh or unkind thing to say about the man. I dislike him for my impression of the way he treated Stu. I feel the same way about Gauguin. To me, the man feels like he found a meal ticket in Theo's generosity. I don't even like his Art. So there, Paul!

The other obnoxious thing about Vincent is the endless bantering about how he never sold a painting. I heard this several times out of people trying to sound interesting. Who cares? His art brought a suffering man great joy and his brother got to vicariously experience his brother's joie de vivre. The story does not end there. Theo died soon after Vincent. Theo's wife believed in his husband's brother. She shrewdly marketed Vincent and created a persona and cache or cachet about the artist. She is responsible for the artist we know today. Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, is the interesting story of Van Gogh, not some stupid ear.

I dedicate this post to spell check for without its help, nothing would have been typed correctly.