This article is about Vincent Van Gogh, a second rate artist, by artist Stephen F. Condren, BFA-SAIC, of Condren Galleries, a Fine Arts Gallery, offering JPEG & PDF prints and scans. As a graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago with a major in Drawing & Painting I speak with reflection, earnestness, and authority on the subject of Art. Prints & Scans Of This Drawing #131Z ~ Order Here.
Task
A difficult to almost impossible task for anyone is to look at the work of a famous artist objectively. This topic can take up volumes and delve into the vast Psychological as well as Philosophical aspects involved in this task as well. However, for the scope of this small article I will not venture into these vast and complicated disciplines and keep the focus narrow like the scalpel of a surgeon, narrow but to the point.
Crudeness
When looking at the works of Vincent Van Gogh and coupling them with the known facts that we have of him I can only say that I am looking at the work of a truly second rate artist. Not only this, the manifestation of his images are always crude. There is no elegance and grace in any of the works of Vincent Van Gogh. These works come from the mind of sick person, a predator, a stalker.
The four paintings of Madame Roulin for example are nothing short of creepy and crude that lack grace, tone, balance, and any aesthetically pleasing elements. Madame Roulin’s face is simply repulsive by color and draftsmanship.
When looking at Starry Night I see insanity everywhere, and the large trees that loom in the foreground to the left are manifestations of giant Monsters from the Id, there is no comfort here.
Cutting Off Ear
The drawing of the Pollard birches are Vincent at his best and here we see that he lacks control of line work. There are no contour lines but rather a cluster of smaller stokes. Like his paintings everything is pulsating and deranged.
I ask the reader to just attempt to look at these works and make your own assessments. Please, come to these works with your own eyes and not of the vast sea of curators, critics, and dealers that are just towing the line of the times. Just look at these works and ask yourself would you hang any of them on your walls?
The act of cutting off your ear and sending it to those that you know is an incredible and horrific thing. These are the acts of a stalker and predator not a healthy well balanced person. However, History is glossing over this disturbing behavior in order to make manifest the “mad genius artist” myth. Today, if I were to cut off my ear would people be “accommodating towards me”, would it drive up the prices of my work?
Demythologize
We need to “demythologize” the life of Vincent Van Gogh, just like New Testament scholars such as Albert Schweitzer, Rudolph Bultmann, and Norman Perrin have done with the “Life of Jesus”. Vincent Van Gogh was a man of flesh and blood and was a predator. The best that the works of Vincent Van Gogh have to offer is a study of the mind of a malicious, crude, mentally disturbed person. Shall we now ponder the art works of Richard Speck and Charles Manson? It is cruel and wrong to elevate the works of the disturbed. Like the works of Pablo Picasso, the best place for them is in a vault because they are safe, gaining in value, and you don’t have to look at them.
Delineation
The line work for this drawing is very light because Mr. Van Gogh is so young.
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