Art newbie... Could someone pls explain Van Gogh?

I want to understand Van Gogh. Any advice?

I'm not expecting to see into the depths of his soul or anything. But I want to understand what it is that makes his work so monumental. He led such an interesting & tragic life, I'm sure a lot of it was communicated through his brush. I just don't know where to start.

 

hes awesome he cut his ear off and sent it to a chick...lol

 

I just really liked the layers he used and all the texture, used to describe an otherwise unremarkable object/subject.. I am no art buff, I just fell in love with a painting called "the Mulberry Tree" that is on display at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena California. I went there to see a picasso exhibit ( i had recently discovered acid and decided to start enjoing off traditional art.) the picasso exhibit kinda blue, was all pencil sketches, SERIOUS SERIOUS roughs, nothing remotely intresting to look at, for me at least. i guess I could go back and appreciate the proces of concieving the finished peices I had expected to see back then I was 14 or 15 so I can be excused for being upset. any way, I just meant to give the colors and textures comment, sorry I decided to relive a past experience with ya too.

 

I think the atmosphere and textures he creates are otherworldy...and I'm into that.


You've got to give Picasso another chance rummy

I know what you are talking about though, I went to the Picasso museum in Spain and his paintings didn't get really interesting till around when he went to Paris andd started painting hookers.

PS many people think that Van Gogh and otherswent crazy from putting their brush in to their mouths after using lead paint.

 

Van Gogh went places no one else was going. He was a visionary, a trailblazer. If you look at the art that was being done when he was around, it was nothing like what he was up to, and the rest of the art world didn't catch up for years after his death. He gave birth to whole new sub-set/idea/concept/technique of painting... using paint as a "tool" not just a "medium".

The only time I did acid I told my friend I was walking in Van Gogh's head. lol.


seamonster66 - I always thought it was all the absinth they were drinking that made them all loonie... but the lead paint is an option I had never considered. Nice.

 

I've been looking at a lot of his paintings online. Unfortunately, you can't get a good feel for the layers that way. I love the detailed stuff he did, like this one:


But I'm still having trouble with most of his "cartoony" stuff. Like this:

So iceteapriestess, you're saying I ought to look at it in context with what everyone else was doing at the time? That makes sense. Sorta like the Beatles.

 

to understand art, you have to look at it and imagine it and find out what it means to you. There's no universally accepted meaning to any painting, not even if an artist says that's what it's "about."

 

Put him in context with the gloomy painting s of the Dutch Masters ...his use of color was revolutionary.. ( i think)

 

Well, the neat thing is....like in Starry Night....he pretty much saw things swirly like that. He had an eye disease -glaucoma sp? i believe its called.

 

Yeah, I love the texture such as that. I have a difficult time deciding my favorite artists...