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February 10, 2004
vincent and the workmen
In the 1956 film, of Irving Stone’s novel, Lust for life, Kirk Douglas, playing Vincent van Gogh, in an attempt to get to grips with the passion of expression, cut his hair, then went into the market and rummaged through stalls until he found an old pair of boots, a pair of blue [or bleu seeing as it was supposed to be France] cotton workman’s trousers and a blue workman’s jacket. Donning this outfit, with his short hair, he felt he could now paint.
I very much doubt if your man actually did this, it was a fanciful artistic flight by Irving Stone to try and convey the complex thinking behind the creative expression of passion.
But feeling right is a key. You can’t paint nine-to-five, Monday to Friday. And it’s not about feeling ‘arty’ in my view – quite the opposite. Vincent, we are led to believe by Irving, wanted to feel part of something, something other than what he was doing, one of the workers. He needed to feel that what he was doing was not that special perhaps. To take the preciousness away and replace it with commonplace.
Painting is different, it is not always helpful to feel different.
Posted by john at February 10, 2004 11:33 AM
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