Vincent Van Gogh.?

Question

What have critics said about Van gogh and about his work? How do you feel about Van Gogh? What sort of things do you find interestinga bout him?

Answer 1

Some of his art I really love. But some of the most loudly touted is krap.

Answer 2

Okay, I'll help you with your homework. ;-)

One of the most striking things about Van Gogh's paintings is how bold and thick the paint is applied. You can't really tell this by looking at flat pictures in the book or on the web - the paint is applied in thick, bold stripes that stand off the canvas. When I was at the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, I was more interested in looking at the paintings from an angle, almost sideways, than I was looking at them straight on.

Answer 3

Many things were and have been said about him: that he was mentally ill; was a loner; was introverted; was an epilectic; was a wannabe; was a failed missioner for the poor people's cause; was depriving himself of sexual pleasure for the sake of art...and so much more.
But when I see his paintings, none of that come's through. All give out an aura of colour and light, texture and form, vibrancy and life, all as to be found in nature itself. And that's how I think Van Gogh saw it and meant to portray it for us to see his view in the future.
I think he wanted to be recognized or better, acknowledged, for bringing the beauty of nature to the outside world, each and everyone. The bold, determined, insistant nature of the techniques in his paintings proves that, though he was far ahead of his time given the impressionist's fashion of the era.
He is the father of modern painting, that we know today.

His work was never recognised enough in his lifetime, he died by suicide, perhaps because of this.

I wonder how he'd feel today to know his paintings can fetch millions!

Answer 4

Critics have said many things about Van Gogh, I've heard both good and bad, I've also heard that his style of painting (answerer #1 described it wonderfully!) with the thick application of paint and exaggerated textures/lines were probably due to mental illness of some kind... whatever the reason, IMO, his paintings are extremely interesting to view in person. I was fortunate enough to be in Washington D.C. at a time when some of his paintings were on display in the art museum, and an old guard let me gently touch one , it was unbelieveable! (I know, I know, I shouldn't have, but...!).

His passion for life, his inner struggles, his sensitivity, but ultimately his desire to express all of those traits through painting was what I found most interesting about him.

Don McClean - Starry Starry Night
Starry, starry night
Paint your palette blue and gray
Look out on a summer's day
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul
Shadows on the hills
Sketch the trees and the daffodils
Catch the breeze and the winter chills
In colors on the snowy linen land

Now I understand
What you tried to say to me
How you suffered for your sanity
How you tried to set them free
They would not listen, They did not know how
Perhaps they'll listen now

Starry, starry night
Flaming flowers that brightly blaze
Swirling clouds in violet haze
Reflect in Vincent's eyes of china blue
Colors changing hue
Morning fields of amber grain
Weathered faces lined in pain
Are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand

For they could not love you
But still your love was true
And when no hope was left inside
On that starry, starry night
You took your life as lovers often do
But I could have told you Vincent
This world was never meant for one as
beautiful as you

Starry, starry night
Portraits hung in empty halls
Frameless heads on nameless walls
With eyes that watch the world and can't forget
Like the strangers that you've met
The ragged men in ragged clothes
The silver thorn of bloody rose
Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow
Now I think I know
What you tried to say to me
How you suffered for your sanity
How you tried to set them free
They would not listen they're not listening still
Perhaps they never will

Answer 5

van gogh only sold one painting in his lifetime.

during his life he was the subject of much criticism, but half the time he wouldnt hear of it.