Artist Peter Clossick appreciates Vincent Van Gogh as a cutting edge pioneer
We are so lucky to live in London. Not only have Monet’s views of the Thames just come on view, but there is currently the best exhibition in town, Van Gogh: Poets And Lovers.
Here are a few Van Gogh quotes:
- “…true painters are those that do not render local colour.”
- “Beautiful is not the exact imitation.”
- “Be at the beginning of the beginning of making something serious.”
- “Popularity is least desirable.”
- “The uglier, older, meaner, iller, poorer I get, the more I wish to take my revenge by doing brilliant colour, well arranged, resplendent.”
The National Gallery’s a once-in-a-century exhibition assembles so many spectacular paintings. Many of the works on show from 1888 to 1890 have rarely been seen in public. Photographs do not do them justice; they must be seen in the flesh.
I cannot help thinking how, to the sophisticated art lover of the day, who was used to slick academic productions, the work would have seemed inept, clumsy and awkward. Yet Vincent, as he always signed himself, was far from these aspects. He was immensely ambitious and on the cutting edge of the ideas of his time. Thanks to loans from abroad, there are works I have never seen before, resplendent with intense colours straight from the palette and abstracted compositions drawn from life. I found those works with the most movement affected me most intensely.
Little has not already been written about Vincent. As a painter, I can only view his work as another painter. His drawings have a hieroglyphic quality: each mark makes up an image and yet is a like a character in an alphabet. You need to get close to the surface to appreciate each individual touch of the brush, pen or pencil and the amazing use of colour.
He always experimented with how he painted clouds and the way that he used colours such as violets, Venetian reds, blues, cobalt, and yellow ochres. The Green Vineyard was my absolute favourite.
With constant adjustment and repetition of marks and colours, one on top of another, following the contour of the form, he could capture a moving figure and landscape, using colour, alteration, and movement to achieve the desired appearance and result.
He exhibits no fear, picking up one colour after another to conjoin with the feeling and space. The speed and quickness of the pen drawings, from reduced ink to full-strength black, all show a well-rehearsed process.
It is all movement and rhythm, with some highly finished works, such as Still Life with Coffee Pot which has an added painted frame, similar to his near contemporary, the Post-Impressionist George Seurat, who Van Gogh admired and visited in his Paris studio early in 1888.
Of course, we have the Sunflowers of 1889, all composed and calm. The heavy impasto tonal colour is not from nature but the palette. These would have looked crude compared to standard academic work of the time.
Slabs of paint crisscrossing the surface, simplified drawings, intense rhythm, surfaces worked and worked and worked.
We all know Vincent’s tragic story. He was a deeply religious, self-taught man with a mission to bring joy and consolation to everyone. At age 37, he shot himself, clumsily but fatally. He asked his rescuers not to save his life as “the sadness will last forever”.
It is the best show in town and an amazing production. I came away totally invigorated. I would recommend everyone go and experience it for themselves.
Poets and Lovers at the National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, WC2, runs until 19 January 2025.