Word: goghs
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...friendship with Spike was to walk on eggshells. He once sent me a furious letter because I had called him a genius. Van Gogh, he maintained, was a genius. He, Spike, was not! He was wrong. The best definition of genius was given me by a philosopher: "A genius is one who, however slightly, alters our perception of reality." The father of the Goons fits that bill alright. Modern comedy owes an enormous debt to that fierce, inventive mania...
...attempts by the artists to learn from each other - one of Van Gogh's reasons for his commune - is evident throughout the exhibition. But what comes across more strongly is the inevitability of their eventual rejection of each other's artistic vision. Van Gogh works emotionally, using paint not only for color but to build up texture. Gauguin is more clinical, blending colors and interpreting what he sees, using scenes as grist for studio-based works...
...Gogh was consumed with the desire to learn from an artist who was already successful. In Arles, he tried to be less literal in his depictions, more sparing with his paint, blurring the outlines of his still lifes. But eventually the urge to express his soul could not be tamed. "When you see the paintings together side by side, Van Gogh's are the stronger," says Andreas Blühm, the Van Gogh Museum's head of exhibitions. "In the end there is a rejection of the other's style. The realization that they wanted different things from...
...Gogh and Gauguin first met at a gallery in Paris in 1887 and soon after exchanged paintings - two studies of sunflowers by Van Gogh for a scene in Martinique by Gauguin. (Today the ratio is reversed: in financial terms, two Gauguins equal one Van Gogh.) After that first meeting, Van Gogh began to idolize Gauguin, imagining he had found a kindred spirit who could act as his mentor and friend. Even after their Arles collaboration collapsed, leaving Van Gogh maimed emotionally as well as physically, the Dutch artist dreamed of a reunion. But while the two remained in contact, they...
Despite his denials, Gauguin too was haunted by Van Gogh. In the years after Arles, he painted a number of sunflowers (Still Life with Sunflowers on an Armchair; Caribbean Woman), which came to symbolize his latent appreciation of Van Gogh's talent. Blühm believes those weeks in Arles gave each artist the strength to follow the convictions of his own art in ways that would have been impossible without the intimacy they shared and eventually rejected. It was a destructive relationship in many ways, but one that left an indelible mark on two of the best-known artists...