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. |
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Read chapters 7 [1891-1893; probably the most important years for the Tahitian project] and 8 [1893-1903] of SPIRITUAL WISDOM to authenticate a Gaugin painting [Arcarea] and got involved in Maurer's prose and arguments.
Contents
The Symbolist Revolt against Modern Life | 1 |
The Symbolist Requirements of Art | 14 |
The Existence of God and Eternity Van Goghs Search for Spiritual Salvation | 43 |
Out of Darkness | 45 |
Salvation in the South The Year in Arles | 62 |
Through a looking glass by a dark reason The Final Struggle for Life and Art | 89 |
From Here to Eternity Gauguins Journey Towards Nirvana | 115 |
Decadence and Disillusionment in the West | 117 |
Death and Rebirth in the Garden Tahiti 18911893 | 140 |
Bitter Interlude and Return to Paradise 18931903 | 159 |
NOTES | 177 |
ILLUSTRATIONS | 191 |
193 | |
199 | |
Other editions - View all
The Pursuit of Spiritual Wisdom: The Thought and Art of Vincent Van Gogh and ... Naomi Margolis Maurer No preview available - 1998 |
Common terms and phrases
aesthetic Amsterdam ancient Aries artists beauty believed Bernard blue Borobodur Breton Christ claimed color Complete Letters convey create culture dark death Delacroix depicts described dream Emile Bernard emotional eternal experience expression eyes feelings felt figure flowers forms Gallery garden Gogh and Gauguin Gogh Foundation Gogh Museum Vincent Gogh's green Gustave Moreau harmony Hermitage Museum human Ibid ideas imagery Institute of Arts Japanese Kroller-Muller Museum landscape live metaphor Mette Minneapolis Institute modern moral motif Musee d'Orsay Museum of Art mysterious native nature Odilon Redon oil on canvas Otterlo Oviri painters painting Paris Paul Gauguin peasant physical picture portrait primitive Private Collection reality relationship religion religious reveals Romantic Sartor Resartus scene seems Self-portrait sexual spiritual Still-life suffering suggest symbol Symbolists synthesizing Tahiti Tahitian things tion told Theo tree truth Van Gogh Museum Vincent van Gogh wheat woman women wrote to Theo yellow