Vincent van Gogh: Between Earth and Heaven: The Landscapes
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,Individual Artists
Vincent van Gogh: Between Earth and Heaven: The Landscapes Details
Vincent van Gogh was an artist wholly saturated in the colors and contours of the landscapes in which he lived and painted. More than Manet or Gauguin, nature itself was his muse and teacher: "it is not the language of painters but the language of nature which one should listen to, the feeling for the things themselves, for reality is more important than the feeling for pictures," he once avowed. Between Earth and Heaven is the first book to provide a comprehensive survey of van Gogh's work as a landscape painter, identifying the stylistic transitions that were specific to this aspect of his work. It shows how the earthy tones of his early Dutch phase were gradually replaced by a lighter style following his relocation to Paris, and how, in the south of France, the artist discovered the intense, brilliant colors and vital expression that have made his paintings so fascinating to this day. Essays by renowned art historians and specialists explore this facet of van Gogh's oeuvre, examining both the artist's blockbuster landscape works and lesser-known paintings. Although he witnessed little success during his lifetime, today Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) is rated as one of the greatest Dutch painters in history. He produced the majority of his work--some 900 paintings and 1,100 drawings--during a brief span of ten years, before he succumbed to mental illness and committed suicide at the age of 37. A seminal figure in the Post-Impressionist movement and an early pioneer of Expressionism, van Gogh is today one of the world's most famous artists.
Reviews
This book is the catalogue for a wonderful exhibition held at the Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland, from April to September 2009. Centered on Van Gogh's many depictions of the Dutch, Parisian and eventually, Provencial landscapes, it gives the reader an opportunity to study a number of paintings seldom seen outside German, Swiss and Northern European museums (Holland and Denmark especially), with some additions from American and French museums. The essays are interesting and shed new light on such themes as Van Gogh's roots and inspirations, his evolution towards an emotional, almost expressionistic (ahead of Expressionism obviously) approach of landscape painting, also on the question whether he should be considered a French painter in spirit and style, or rather a "Dutch painter in France", or even "an outsider whose genius transcended all borders". There are also enlightening passages on the reception of Van Gogh's art in Germany, and especially in Nazi Germany (one surprisingly learns of Goering's taste for Van Gogh's paintings, which he prominently displayed in his Carinhall palace, when at the same time Hitler banned them from German museums...).Now, as opposed to the other reviewer, I was somewhat disappointed with the quality of the reproductions, all of the works figuring in the exhibition being illustrated half-page and the ones not in the exhibition being granted thumbnail-sized images only. Besides, having seen the exhibition in Basel, I found the colors in the book rather far from the originals. One is entitled to expect better quality from Hatje Cantz in this respect with today's technologies. Therefore, only 3 stars for the illustations and 5 for the text, which makes an average of 4 stars...
