Amsterdam pays tribute to van Gogh, Gauguin

Carla Bianpoen, Contributor, Amsterdam

It is a fact of life, that a genius is rarely hailed during his lifetime. Vincent (Willem) van Gogh (b. 1853) was one such genius. During his lifetime, he was unable to sell more than just one single piece of work, out of over 800 paintings.

But the history of art quotes him as the greatest Dutch painter after Rembrandt, and one who has powerfully influenced the current of Expressionism in modern art.

In early February 2002, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam embarked on a six-month long exhibition titled van Gogh and Gauguin.

Paul Gauguin (b. 1848) is another legendary painter, one who is considered among the leading French painters of the Post- Impressionist period, and whose development of a conceptual method of representation is hailed as a decisive step for 20th- century art.

The exhibit is about their collaborative sojourn in Arles in Southern France. The importance of their nine-week collaboration (Oct. 23 to Dec. 23, 1888) is highlighted through 120 top pieces from 65 distinguished lenders throughout the world and includes works of the two painters from before, during and after their turbulent weeks at the Yellow House, including three of van Gogh's famous Sunflowers shown alongside each other.

It recounts the story of two basically different artists whose fierce quarrels do not take away from the enduring influence they had on each other.

Extremely inspiring is the way the museum facilitates everybody to access an understanding from a professional as well as from the human aspects.

Art connoisseurs will leave the exhibition with full admiration, and so will most art novices, as a free pocket guide and free audio tour in seven languages, as well as a richly illustrated and informative catalog in English, Dutch, French, German, Italian and Spanish by Douglas Druick and Peter Kort Zegers lead into the different techniques and the details of their daily life.

Preceded by the Arts Institute of Chicago exhibit in 2001, interest remained extremely high, although advance ticket sales in various countries started as early as September 2001.

In April, international crowds were seen patiently thronging in long queues, braving cold winds and rain, towards the ticket office. To allow reasonable space for viewing, there was only a limited daily sale of admission tickets.

The Studio of the South was a place in Vincent van Gogh's imagination, and then began to take shape when he arrived in Arles. The Studio of the South was to be a place where unrecognized artists would gather, work together and bring new impulses to the arts. His brother Theo, who was an art dealer in Paris would take care of their daily needs.

In May 1888, van Gogh rented a house in Arles and he enthusiastically started working on the realization of his idea. He suggested that Gauguin, whom he had earlier met in Paris, should join him. Apparently not interested initially, Gauguin in the end gave in, perhaps more lured by the financial prospects offered by van Gogh's brother than by the prospect of working with van Gogh.

Nevertheless, he shared a 20-meter material of coarse jute with van Gogh, signaling a beginning in goodwill and camaraderie. For his part, van Gogh had prepared the house as if he was expecting his bride, showing eager and overwhelming admiration.

They worked closely together, portrayed the same landscapes and the same models, influencing each other in spite of their differences.

The jute canvas proved well suited to Gauguin's deliberative painting technique with sparingly applied areas of color and vague contours, but the texture of the fabric had a competing effect to van Gogh's individual brushstrokes. His surface appeared duller and his colors subdued. Their differences, however, lay deeper.

Issues they had debated in a previous lengthy correspondence, became even more challenging in their collaborative efforts. Although van Gogh did everything to please Gauguin, the latter found it difficult to live in such close proximity.

The house was small and van Gogh expected them to spend all their waking hours together. Tension escalated, with both feeling increasing uneasiness. In a violent argument, van Gogh, who suffered from regular mental fits, cut off a piece of his own ear after having threatened Gauguin with a razor. Gauguin left and never saw Vincent again.

Nevertheless, their brief collaboration proved to have deeply affected them both. The paintings of 1889-1890 that Van Gogh made in the psychiatric clinic in Saint-Rimy and those that Gauguin made after his departure from Arles, contain various allusions to each other's earlier work.

Van Gogh developed several themes from the period before Gauguin's departure, while experimenting with the decorative color fields and dark contours to which Gauguin had introduced him. He also produced variations on one of Gauguin's sketches of Marie Ginoux, the owner of a night pub, who had posed for them. He shot himself on July 29, 1890.

Gauguin never forgot his sojourn in Arles, as is clear from the still lifes of sunflowers in this exhibition. He took over van Gogh's idea to establish a Studio of the Tropics, which, however, never got off the ground. He died, penniless and alone on the island of Hiva Oa in 1903.

Van Gogh & Gauguin; 9 February - 2 June 2002; Van Gogh Museum; Paulus Potterstraat 7, Amsterdam; Admission fee: Euro 13 for adults and Euro 8 for youths between 13 and 17 years of age.