Van Gogh: An Artistic Genius
or just mentally ill?
by George Chatzigeorgiou
Tons of contemporary artists who are considered excellent in their field have found their art as an escape from the hustle and bustle of everyday life, a factor which contributes to the depth of their masterpieces, since through their works, emotions are expressed in the form of a painting, which makes it all the more special. One of those artists is Vincent Van Gogh, one of the greatest artists of all time.
A humble and antisocial young man, Vincent was born and brought up in the small town of Zundert in the Netherlands to a father who was a pastor, a profession that Vincent got attracted by, which ultimately drove him to become a preacher in a coal mining community, the people of which were humble and poor, a factor which influenced Van Gogh a lot throughout his artistic career. He also lived in the Hague for a certain period of his life and worked as an art dealer. This job was one of the first times Vincent came in contact with the art world, before ultimately deciding to pursue that career path, taking art lessons and then moving to Paris, where he first started painting professionally about topics such as life in the countryside and human nature, themes which were found unappealing by the public then, which led to his disappointment and had him moving out of Paris to Arles, a town in France. He did not go alone there though, since he was accompanied by another artist, Paul Gaugin, a painter with whom Van Gogh would develop a troubled friendship because of their divergence on art and life, which contributed to Van Gogh’s worsening mental state and caused him to cut his ear lobe off. He then was hospitalized and instead of his artistic drive slowing down, his motivation blossomed, with him creating one painting a day on average. It was in the asylum where he painted his most famous work, “Starry Night”, a painting which clearly indicates Van Gogh’s mental state, with dark colours and intricate patterns; the masterpiece was recognized as one of the best pieces in art history. Despite the greatness of his paintings though, his work got recognized posthumously, because of the dedication Theo and his wife showed to making his name known.
As mentioned in the previous paragraph, his painting, “Starry Night” vividly reflected Van Gogh’s mental state. The weird-looking clouds, which are one of the core features of this painting, suggest that Van Gogh may have painted it while hallucinating, which is one of the many symptoms of schizophrenia. Aside from that, Van Gogh also exhibited signs of depression, which is proven by the series of letters he exchanged with his brother and other acquaintances, in which he explains that he finds expressing emotions through painting as difficult as talking, a quote which says a lot about his state of mind and personality in general. Another painting that proves Van Gogh’s expressions through his art, is “Sunflowers”, in which he expresses his periodic joy and vitality with intense bright colours. The emotions expressed through his work is the thing that makes them even more valuable.
In conclusion, for an artist who lived as horribly as Van Gogh, there is a great potential to be known posthumously, since the depth added to his works because of the need to express emotions, makes his paintings especially valuable, with him contributing to art and confirming its true meaning: it’s not only about painting on a canvas, it’s about expressing emotions.
