Culture in Amsterdam
Nov 10 2009 By Ken Bennett
Amsterdam _220
THE scrawled writing dancing across the page tells the story of a man in a hurry to record more than just his personal canvas of life …
Because, unlike many of his famous contemporaries, Vincent Van Gogh left a fascinating, detailed narrative of tumbling observations alongside his legendary paintings.
Now, after 15 years of painstaking research, a special exhibition to mark the publication of a six-volume book of his letters is on display at a museum solely dedicated to his talents.
‘The Artists Speaks’ offers a completely different multi-faceted aspect of the tortured artist not only as a painter but a writer.
Quotations from his letters – he wrote more than 800 – guide visitors through his paintings offering intimate insights on his views of art and the actual role of the artist himself.
In direct and compelling style, they are the essence of his brief life (he died at 37) and, in some cases, show rough, miniature sketches he would later fashion into unforgettable works of art.
In one letter, for example, sent in 1888 to fellow artist Emile Bernard, he muses: "There are many people, especially among our pals, who imagine words are nothing.
"On the contrary, it’s as interesting and as difficult to say a thing well as to paint a thing."
And while the exhibition in the Rietveld building offers a multi-faceted and penetrating view of Van Gogh as letter-writer and artist, history fashionistas can drool over treasures never before seen outside Russia at another magnetic attraction.
Hermitage Amsterdam opened at the beginning of the year and is showing the remarkable richness and grandeur of Russia’s artistic heritage.
