Vincent Van Gogh is one of history’s most influential artists and is probably one of the main contributors of today’s modern art. He is by far the most popular and the most spectacular painter the world has ever known. Van Gogh was born in Zundert, Neatherlands on the 30th of March 1853.
Brush with Genius is based on the life and death of Vincent Van Gogh. The short film is centered around the narration by himself and about the hundreds of letters written by him to his younger brother Theo. To better understand the artist, the film takes its views to many places. From the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam to the south of France where he discovered his famous ‘high yellow note’. The film also takes you to Auvers-sur-Oise where he expresses his love for the country side. This is where in his own words he says “I am almost certain that these canvases illustrate what I cannot express in words, that is how healthy and heartening I find the country side”. The film is certainly a journey to the heart of Van Gogh’s paintings. The film brings you face to face with genius in its purest state.
Van Gogh lived most of his life in the Neatherlands till he moved to France and lived with his brother till he decided to take his own life the the fields where he loved to paint. He shot himself in the chest and is known to have died 2 days later. He died at the age of 37. His brother who was by his side during Van Gogh’s last moments died 6 months later as he could not come to terms with the loss of his beloved brother.
He is known to have created over 800 paintings in the 1880s alone.
He was a man who lived most of his life in pain and suffered sevier depression, specially during the last few years of his life. His mental state was such that it drove him to the point of cutting one of his earlobes off. He commited himself to a mental clinic where he lived a year of his short life. Within that year he is known to have kept on painting as a passion and at the same time at part of his therapy.
Van Gogh says in his own words, “ sometimes the pictures came naturally to me without any effort, like in a dream”. He drew his inspiration from nature, landscapes, from the dazzling yellow of the cornfields to the deep blue of the sky.
All in all the film was a look at a painter in full creative floor. It was a journey that portraied Vincent Van Gogh’s emotions, pain and suffering. No dobut one of the greatest painters ever to place a pain brush of a canvas.
Note to David: while researching information to write this report, I came across a song that was dedicated to Vincent Van Gogh. I think the lyrics in this song says it all…
Lyrics:
Starry, starry night.
Paint your palette blue and grey,
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 field of amber grain,
Weathered faces lined in pain,
Are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand.
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.
For they could not love you,
But still your love was true.
And when no hope was left in sight
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 head on nameless walls,
With eyes that watch the world and can't forget.
Like the strangers that you've met,
The ragged men in the 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...
No comments:
Post a Comment