Marco Polo's name is still synonymous with the wanderlust inside us all. He fired up our imagination. Many dispute he never got to China but does that really matter?
Submitted by:
photopilot
03/12/11
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ldahlin
03/18/11
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jraymond
03/07/11
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eyemagination
03/10/11
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kate kremer
04/10/11
June 26, 2012
Vincent Van Gogh had already failed at being an art dealer. And when he failed to follow in his father's ministerial footsteps at 27, he began to study art.
He poured himself obsessively into this newly found talent and completed thousands of sketches and oil paintings before he died just ten years later.
“How rich art is;” he said in a letter to his brother Theo, the central figure in his life. “If one can only remember what one has seen, one is never without food for thought or truly lonely, never alone.”
Perhaps he forgot what he had seen, or maybe those conflicting emotions were just too much for him. Because a self-inflicted gun shot wound put him out of his misery, some 140 years ago to this day.
Most of his best-known works were produced in the final two years of his life, when he cut off his left ear following a breakdown of his friendship with Paul Gauguin.
He painted Starry Night strictly from memory, in a 2 X 2 room, when he was committed to the asylum in that tumultuous final year. He didn’t like the painting much, telling Theo, “I think there's nothing at all good about it save the field of wheat, the mountain, the orchard, the olives with the blue hills and the portrait and the entrance to the Quarry, and the rest says nothing to me, because it lacks individual intention and feeling in the lines."
His own favorite was the Potato Eaters, widely regarded today as his first masterpiece.
It may be trite to say his art will live on forever, but it’s also true.
It’s unfortunate some of that living couldn’t happen in his lifetime, where it might have done him some good.
Amazingly, during his short and turbulent life, he sold only one painting for 400 francs, just four months before his death, entitled The Red Vineyard.
Madame Ginoux recently sold for over $40 million in auction.
In Theo's letter to their sister Jo, he was prescient as usual about his brother.
“That head of his has been occupied with contemporary society's insoluble problems for so long, and he is still battling on with his good-heartedness and boundless energy. His efforts have not been in vain, but he will probably not live to see them come to fruition, for by the time people understand what he is saying in his paintings, it will be too late.”
Cézanne, Van Gogh and Gauguin were either not known or ridiculed by the critics, while they quietly changed the course of art history.
And what of the art scene today?
Great artists make us see things differently; like Van Gogh, they touch us in a deep emotional place.
Each generation has a few. Who do you think are the artists that are not getting the recognition they deserve? And why?
still thinking about today...
Submitted by:
serenabeeks
03/12/11
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jordanawright
03/16/11
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Nicole S. C.
03/13/11
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Paul Geller
03/20/11
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Fehlen88
03/19/11
the artist that draws emoticons
...and do I really have to explain?
so many...so many...artists are not recognized and don't survive life's fiascos.... as many...as many... as the annual Spring sprouting of plum flowers tethered to a sturdy plum tree ....bloomed to bear fruit...by natural selection, a certain chosen few...only those plum flowers not plucked by rare bird, squrriel, or plum flowers not torn from their stem by a stormwind ...can survive the toil and ridicule of being different or bright...only a buschel of full ripe plums... survive lifes' trauma and enviroment discrepancies.. ...and even after the fruited filled ripened plums are graced to bounce, blow and sway tethered to the tree...a hampered few still fall unfulfilled, not ripe...to the ground... artists have to acquire guts of strength...and will....to stay in the artist game, the art apprenticeship to excellance, most plums will not get or see their reward or award for years of solo rehearsed existance, and then one speculates the loss of the bloom that drops to the ground. Art attainment is the eye of the beholder and art success is a measure full circle achievement!
Having no artistic talent myself, I think all artists are amazing. To put your work out there for everyone to me seems really brave. Not everyone has to like it, but just to do it... Amazing.
Don Mclean's "Vincent" says it ever so much better than I ever could.....
mbailey...me too, i couldn't paint even if my life depends on it. My dad's the artist in the family, going back to art school after he retired from the bank where he worked all his life. At 60, he backpacked with his artists friends to see the museums in Europe. His favourite is nude painting - not him, models I mean - in oil.
Bert...you took the words right out of me, just as I was about to post
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.
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...
Spring Fragrance, I would be interested in your perspective on the relationship between the artist's faulty eyesight (the cause of which is in dispute) and the nature & quality of his work. Perhaps it is a huge oversimplification, but my guess is that he is a textbook case of undiagnosed untreated clinical depression.....
1956 film Lust for Life had the great Kirk Douglas as Vincent crying out "I tried to show a place where a man can ruin himself, go mad... commit a crime." To really find ourselves often requires going out of our minds. The film co-stars the great Anthony Quinn as Gauguin who accuses Van Gogh of painting too fast. To which Vincent replies that Gauguin "looks" too fast. My weekend convertible rides in the Jag has my gray mane bleached out so white I have morphed into a glow worm. I need me a Straw Hat like Mr. Sips and Strokes.
Bert, modern and abstract art is an area I wouldn't dare venture to. I understand there is never a right or wrong answer which I am thankful for if I ever have to pretend an answer, so as not to sound stupid!
Spring Fragrance, you protest too much, "stupid" is an adjective that will never modify your name, at least not for me. You're right about modern art, my educated guess is that even the so-called "experts" are merely putting forward theories that are for the most part impossible to prove by traditional analysis. That's NOT the same as saying that art is valueless, instead I think that there will always be a highly subjective aspect.
Tommy Typical, keep up driving with that top down, there are numerous studies that highly correlate exposure to sunlight with production of vitamin D, which in turn enhances mood. Feeling good about yourself, however, isn't the same as having one's feet both planted firmly in reality. I think "being realistic" is often a metaphor for a request that we abandon our childhood pleasures, a scary idea. Kids learn to think that their cultivating their imagination is a weakness in the real world, and we die a little bit inside any time that we do that to ourselves.
STARRY NIGHT is my forever favorite painting! In the MOMA of NYC.
I've told people my son reminds me of Van Gogh, he even has the "little ear".
Sadly I get no more paintings from him because he paints houses and interiors to "make everything pretty!"
Spring Fragrance thank you for the lyrics, made me cry!!
I can assure you...they never will.
Tommy T~ hope you use sunscreen and moisturiser.
Vincent Van Gogh works are indeed my favorite...I wrote and redrew and painted a few his works in a fifth grade book report...art museum visits, I squint and move my body back and forward at every painting...delight in art...seeking the lines, shadows, depths, surface tension, and art spectrum of colors...seek messages...Love art...my family owned the Art Spectrum Gallaries...and traveled to New York just to buy ART!!Posted a picture of my South Side Excursion. Check my Art Purse..
I would like to nominate everyone. Every person is an artist. Most of us are unknown even to ourselves. Little voices say "You are a fake" when we try to create art, when we pour our souls into creative endeavors. We are not fakes. We are all artists.
Van Gogh is the first artist I truly learned about and has remained one of my very favorites. A fascinating person and a wonderful artist.
Artists who paint are awe-inspiring to me - whether I love what they paint or not. Going to an art gallery or museum is one of life's great privileges and treats.
My talent lie in finding the songs and this one comes with the paintings.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkvLq0TYiwI
lies, of course.
One of the awesome perks of living in Amsterdam for a year was an immersion course in Van Gogh. Although the Dutch Tourist Board could use me on any number of topics I would have to say that it is worth a trip to A'dam just to go to the Van Gogh Museum. How lucky I was to live in the midst of those paintings--drinking coffee looking at "the" bridge, walking breathing just embracing the life force that emanates from each canvas.
The other big lesson was that that Starry Night exists wherever we are, we just have to take the time to look at it and feel its magic.
sadness...lingers still .....Thanks Korthal for the video review...very much enjoyed it...just reminds me that art participation on whatever artistic artistry....scale...level....or 5 Star review...will help one understanding human nature..culture....to be enjoyed....through time...
"Art is ...",that is an argument that goes on. Is a photograph art? It was 'taken',not created.
I think, in a photo, the art is in setting up the shot.
There is a certain amount of creativity there.
Yesterday, our Ivan was giving words of wisdom on the subject of lending books - I owned a book titled (I think) "Dear Theo" - a collection of correspondence between Vincent and his brother. Sadly, I lent the book out to somebody who lent it to somebody else etc. and I have not seen it (or a second hand copy of it) since.
Is being an artist about fame and recognition? People who draw and paint do so out of some inner compulsion. I have seen works spray painted on inner city walls that I would call 'art'.
I know a guy named Art
Of course there's the line, I don't know art, but I know what I like. I feel that way sometimes, particularly with modern abstract art that can be so hard to define. A friend of mine has a modern abstract painting in her living room above the fireplace and I just love it. It's painted with thick gobs of oil that kind of look like waves in wonderful colors. I think it would be scary to invest in a painting like that. But she and her husband liked to do that and they have a fair amount of original art in their home. Sometimes buying an original painting is as hard and risky as creating it. I took painting in college and really liked it. My hope is to take it up again someday when I grow up.
Live and begin every new day as though you have a fresh canvas...create....! Expression is precious...messages are everywhere....Art Balance..is important..too, therefore, art that is destructive or is ruining property and costly...damaging.is..very...unallowed art.. one should take care to think...or review...not to damage...buildings, train cars and cement walls..and so forth....so if painting chaos is happening in a neighborhood..what should we do?. .....ART CLASS EDUCATION..centers of enrichment room to paint, create playful stage performance..art..for instance large art...allow a wall at a construction site to be painted...expressed..and selll the boards..of finished works to raise money for enhancing parks..... One day...I sat near a train track tressel and did a montage photo shoot of grafitti train cars...old city urban Philadelphia...the lines and creativity visually fun ...and designs are artistic..but alot is foul langauge...and grewsome...too..messagening a problem...!Next generation...is here...and are solving problems...yea!
Chef Deb, I plan on being in Amsterdam this October and am looking foward to the Van Gogh museum. I hope most of the collection is there and not out on loan somewhere.
I just watched Woody Allen's "Midnight In Paris" last night, it fits very nicely with today's theme. If you haven't seen it, run out and rent it, it is worth it. Who hasn't wanted to step into another time and live among those we read about and experience what until now has only been a misplaced nostalgia for something we never experienced?
When I was at Uni I had a double major Art with a photographic emphasis and Art History. While I loved what I was studying I also realized that neither were my forte and I would never make a living at them. But it did give me an appreciation for the visual arts and the lives of those who create.
In my time at Savannah GA I spent a lot of weekend time just walking the Tybee Island Beach observing creation...some bikini clad , some not. There was one lovely young lady who had two darling babies who she tended with great loving care. What was unusual about the scene was she was always headfirst deep in the ssnd digging which caused her skimpily clad trunklus posteriorosis to be displayed high in the air for all to admire. One day I observed this toe-headed 5 year old wlking across the beach to the water. As he passed the lady of whom I am speaking, he just stopped and stared at he was not sure what but understood it had signicance that would be lasting and profound. That's how I feel when I see truly fine art.
Seapansie~ THe more I read you the more I realize you probably know more than I do so I respectfully withdraw my suggestions in yesterday's post re: hemming the jeans.
Seapansie's right. Many artist are unrecognized. And maybe Tropilot has it right also. We all create art in some way because we evoke emotions as Lotlot says.
Now I'd like to introduce you to an artist I've know for 27 years since he was about 15. He is recognized a bit but not famous. I tried to post a picture of his painting titled "White trees," but couldn't get it to work. To see some of his work just google Tommy Bosket and enjoy.
Georgie Boy, I enjoy reading, "hemming of the jeans," ( I need a chuckle too) all greatest thoughts by men, words written are creative maps of brain waves..and I compared your thoughts to a reversal mood affect that the bottom of my moderate white bell jeans had on my final sewing product. Newly, addition of the moderate white bell sleeves sewed onto a favorite lime green taffeta shirt....of mine ...with lemon chiffon ribbon inlaids..Thank goodness my sewing has to be likeable only to me....no offense village...tweet.. tweet...the greatest love of my life...was named George..and I often compared him to Ceaser, a great writer of Latin Prose...being a Latin student romanced my life!
Just posted on the "Eye" Community page: One picture on Tweet Tweet...title and the other picture is titled Art Deco Purse...but I am outside today under beautiful Pennsylvania fluffly white clouds and temperature cool breezy air conditions..and preparing my book on blueberries..so photograhic art is my welcomed indentured servitude for the day...the tweet bisque figurenes are adorable...I had to replace the birds with wooden ones because the bisques ones were broken...Enjoy..
Bert- Sir, you're "dying a little bit" comment is most insightful.
Haze- I slather up everyday with SPF and Aloe- I was always been addicted to the smell of suntan lotion and swimming pools.
***I know this sounds weird but when I look at artwork I smell what it is especially the post impressionists.
Art is anything that results from human creativity.
I knew a man who painted houses. His attention to detail, his imagination made his work art.
I know a man whose carpentry is an enviable work of art.
Writing can be art.
Photography can be art.
Music can be art.
Some smile in such a way that it becomes art.
Some do the same in the way they make a compliment.
Art can be so-called junk found in dump grounds – or abandoned at the curbs of city streets – and reconfigured as furniture or lamps or whatever and, thus, put to use anew.
Art is not limited.
Except perhaps by lack of imagination.
Or maybe laziness.
Art can be costly.
Or priceless.
Or free.
Art is all about us.
Some see it.
Some do not.
I choose to see.
For art makes my life abundantly more complete, more meaningful.
Something of an art form in itself, you might say.
Lot Lot love it.....ie., Art is....Broken chairs....or a delicious-looking Eclaire....or an ice sculpture that makes one freeze...or a painted purple flower that can sell for dollar.....or a fairy tale melody of power...or a grosteque joke that provokes...a chalk drawing of a kitty cat purring....a dress made of the finest Chantilly Lace....a self-portriat of Hemingways Aunt.. a picture of a nat........pictorial seascapes with ocean sounds tumbling, waving, rythmically moving...frothing....flowing...to clammoring winds...colored roses exhuding heaven scents...art is everything!
I'm in the distribution business. A middle man between the customer and the original equipment manufacturer. There are always issues, some easier than others, some that require a lot of imagination to resolve. I was working with a colleague recently about a fairly tricky, complex issue and asked him if he was enjoying himself. His answer was yes, of course, and that was why he considered himself an artist. And, by gosh, he was right!
a dress made of the finest Chantilly Lace aluring...correction; I posted a closup pic of my Art Deco Purse...so Art Decoish...
LotLot~ Yyour is art
LotLot~ Your writing is art!
Didn't we just talk about Vincent a few pages ago?
I like photos of beautiful places I have been. Not so much any kind of abstracts.
"Art," "Beauty," or "Value" -- Each is in the eye of the beholder. A painting is worth what someone who wants it is willing to pay.
Twice in my life I have experienced the genuine magic of art. Once I turned a corner in the Dallas Museum of Art, and found myself facing the Andrew Wyeth painting, "That Gentleman." A half hour later I realized that I had not moved. I had been utterly transfixed, and it felt as though I had been in that room with Wyeth's model, Joe Clark. Another was at a John Singer Sargent retrospective in Boston. One painting eclipsed all the others in the room. It was neither the most beautiful, nor famous of the paintings displayed. Yet, again I had the sensation of tunnel vision, and an uncanny, even eerie connection to the model.
I believe it may be that true art has the capacity to provide something like a window through time...and the power to choose the one drawn through. At the very least, art is communication, or it is craft. Mere decoration. I am not certain, in an age of astonishing apps and clickable creativity, that many living artists dig deep enough...or are deep enough...to find the more elusive, mystical element.
LOTLOT-great insight thinking 'out of the box'. THANKS, I enjoyed your thoughts.
Lot ~ Your 2:35 -- absolutely, spot on. I too enjoyed your thoughts. Thank you.
Who painted "The Sunflowers" ? You know the painting...very yellow, vase, gigantic sunflowers. ??
I'm not sure Van Gogh was a good judge of his artwork, probably because what was in his mind's eye could never ever be perfectly duplicated on canvas, and that's a frustration to the artist. To the audience, since we don't know his mental creation - we like (or don't) what he put on canvas. Also, art is as much a matter of what you leave out of the work, as what you put in. Art is editing. And then knowing when to stop editing. Pity the artists - all kinds - they set impossible standards for themselves.
FROM YESTERDAY ... PAOLOS: With Great Joy, I receive and provoke all Jokes, Jests, Japes and Jabs ... That is why, My Friend ... I responded with mock pique ... Prolem with the written word is that there is no Voice Inflexion or Facial Expression for a Reader to cue from ....... I Welcome all Fun-Making, as long as my Family and My Dogs are not attacked, and I took No Offence ... Never would have crossed my mind that YOU would be Offensive, in the first place .......
As to Art; I have always liked Van Gogh's Works ... My Favorites however, have always been, Rubens, Titian, and on the other end of sanity, Modigliani and some of Giuseppe Albertini, other than his Portraiture ... And, a Picasso or two ... Not much on Lanscapes, tho' Seascapes are a joy ... a little Degas ... Anyone who can cover all the Numbers just right is O K with me .......
Without craftsmanship art is a sail flapping in the wind. I think Turner said that.
IVAN I am with you on those Titians. I am right on top of it.
Number Paints...super..wink, wink, Reminds me, wink wink... .I going to check my Pennsylvania Lottery numbers ..now..@ 7pm...enjoy...the evening! Ok, I have checked, I have been playing the number 8.... ever since Springfragrance mentioned 8 as a Chinese lucky number..the number is 8 is drawn..frequently this past week..but not in conjunction with other numbers that have the number 8 in it...so back to trying good ole' luck, the week is not over...but.....ok... I order some more 8s', wink!!
Ivan with you on that -- not much on landscapes, but seascapes are a joy. People are my favorite though.......I saw a painting, I wish I knew who did it, of a jockey sitting on the rail after a race. It was obvious he had lost. The artist captured the abject look of the person who did his all and still...lost. And I love sculptures; enjoying them with an "if only I could" look and feel.
True Art doesn't always please. When Art is truly Art it strikes you.....like Andy with the jockey painting and Chip with the Wyeth and the Sargent. There's no explaining why it happens, it just does. In being true to himself the artist is thumbing his nose at you and daring you to view/think/wonder.......and perhaps even disagree. Where we end up in trouble is when we crassly try to put a monetary value on that expression. It's like trying to value each grain of sand in a fistful of sand--impossible.......and a waste of time. Poseurs detract from the authenticity of true artists. ******* Every year our city has "Art in the Park" on a lovely spring Sunday and artists of all kinds can display and sell their wares. Well, the reality is, it's not really ART in the park, but craft in the park what with the painted scenes on saw blades and the hand-fired soup bowls.++++Which brings me to the question: can utility also be Art??
MISS ANDY: Giuseppe Albertini was a Fine Portraitist and was Commissioned by many of the Crown'd Heads of Europe, and a large number of Clerics(who were NOT catholic) At one point in his life he grew bored with painting, and decided to try another Medium ... First he sculpted and found no joy ... then he tried Water Color ... and found it not that much different from Oil painting ... He tried designing Jewelry, designing Carriages, designing Clothes ... and at length, he decided he would throw a Vase or two ... maybe a Chamber Pot or Soup Tureen(hoping to be able to tell the difference) and he threw his first Vase, hand painted it, and was pleased with it when finished ... He was taking it over to a Potter to be fired, when he met a Patron who inquired about his new production, and was sufficiently impressed with it, such that he bought the piece then and there , in the middle of the street, unfired and unfinished ... Every year after that, on the Anniversary of that first Triumph, Albertini threw another Vase, and placed it in his Studio Window for sale ...
Shortly after Albertini produced the eleventh Vase, he died, and so did his annual distraction from painting, which he only continued so that he could eat ... Last time I saw Number Eleven, it was a piece in an Estate Sale, being handled by Nadia's Antiques, in Dallas ... and was valued at, $660,000 ....... No idea who owns it now .......
Your dejected Jockey was probably done by Norman Rockwell, who was an Illustrator, more than an Artist .......
Forgot to mention in my rambling ... I am a Great Fan of Henry Ossawa Tanner, and his works also ....... His works are Ordinary Life, put on Canvas very, very well, indeed ... An American Artist, of Nigerian descent .......
"Publicity drives up the value of the art...".....I think that pictures... really make or enhance the daily Newspaper.......... I actually look at and study the front page of the Newspaper before I read it...and the front page Newsline..publizes what I need to read...helps me decide..what I may read on further.... .the larger the front photo the more interest in the Newspaper...and the more photos...I enjoy the news so much more..too.
Ivan - always a pleasure to read your posts and learn; thank you. My dejected jockey wasn't Norman Rockwell, I know all of his, this was an actual painting. It spoke to me as only the really good ones do.
Velvet elvis,and poker playing dogs....basement art
I'm a fan of Romare Bearden...maybe because so many of his works are collages or have a quilt like feel to them.
One of my favorite DeYoung Museum exhibits was of quilts done by women of Gee's Bend, Alabama. They used any scraps of fabric they could get hold of....The women were slaves who passed the craft down through their children, who are still quilting today. This community of quilters was "discovered" in the early 1990s. These are so much more than traditional quilts...each a work of art....and not what you might think of when you think of quilts....which are nice, but these took my breath away....and could stand next to any modern art hanging on a wall.
http://www.google.com/search?q=gees+bend&hl=en&rlz=1I7GTBI_en&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=4VDrT7FQ5KLbBdS5zMEB&ved=0CGIQsAQ&biw=964&bih=501