The Pursuit of Spiritual Wisdom: The Thought and Art of Vincent Van Gogh and Paul GauguinThis book explores van Gogh's and Gauguin's conviction that the purpose of visual art in human culture is to communicate a spiritual understanding of existence comparable to the wisdom contained in the metaphors and parables of myths, religions, and literature. Monographic studies in the book, which entail many new interpretations of van Gogh's and Gauguin's imagery, reveal the ways in which their ideas and the specific events of their personal lives shaped their creation of meaningful symbolic motifs. |
Contents
CHAPTER ONE The Symbolist Revolt against Modern Life page I | 1 |
CHAPTER TWO The Symbolist Requirements of Art page | 14 |
CHAPTER THREE Out of Darkness page | 45 |
The Year in Arles page | 62 |
The Final Struggle for Life and Art page | 89 |
CHAPTER SIX Decadence and Disillusionment in the West page | 117 |
Tahiti 18911893 page | 140 |
18931903 page | 159 |
NOTES page | 177 |
BIBLIOGRAPHY page | 193 |
Common terms and phrases
aesthetic Amsterdam ancient Arles artists beauty believed Bernard blue Borobodur Breton Christ claimed color Complete Letters convey create culture dark death Delacroix depicts described dream Émile Bernard emotional eternal Eugène Delacroix experience expression eyes feel felt figure flowers forms Gallery garden Gogh Foundation Gogh Museum Vincent Gogh's green Gustave Moreau harmony Hermitage Museum human Ibid ideas imagery Institute of Arts Japanese Kröller-Müller Museum landscape Lettres/Malingue live metaphor Mette Minneapolis Institute modern moral motif Musée d'Orsay Museum of Art mysterious native nature Noa Noa Odilon Redon oil on canvas Otterlo Oviri painters painting Paris Paul Gauguin peasant picture portrait primitive Private Collection reality religion religious reveals Romantic Sartor Resartus scene seems Self-portrait sexual spiritual Still-life suffering suggest symbol Symbolists synthesizing Tahiti Tahitian Tehamana things tion told Theo tree truth Van Gogh Museum Vincent van Gogh woman women wrote to Theo yellow