Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Exhilarating master class in drawing, October 15, 2005
This remarkable book and the show it accompanies (at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) demonstrate how fundamental drawing was to Van Gogh's art. As a self-taught artist Van Gogh knew that skill in drawing would be the heart of his work -- and the show bares this heart to world for effectively the first time. As well known as his paintings are, most of these works of art have not been seen by the general public.
The drawings share with his paintings a level of completion and self consciousness as works of art. With a few notable exceptions (a beautiful self-portrait) these are not notebook sketches. They are meant to be seen. They are finished. Even the quick drawings tossed off as ravishing little illustrations to his letters have a level of balance, completion, and seeming intent to convey a complete artistic thought to a viewer. And most of the drawings have a level of finish which suggests they were meant to be viewed as mature works of art.
But even then, the amazing thing about these drawings is that we can look closely and see the process of the drawings developing, almost as if they are about the pure pleasure of the act of drawing. There is an early drawing of "Behind the Hedges," (catalogue 20) where the fields and hedges and sky are all built up our of a rapid pen cross hatch, as if his hand never stopped whipping across the paper building up mood and atmosphere as he went.
There is the stunning "Two Cottages" (48) were the technique of the drawing changes with every moment -- hatched lines represents individual blades of grass, then moments later the same hatch represents a shadow on a wall of a building, then lightning fast dots for flowers, assertive contours for a treetrunk and then moments later trees represented as starbursts of abstract line. The lines waver between the literal and abstract, between defining a form and dissolving it, in a way that is simply a master class in drawing.
It's interesting too to see his "failures," when he took an academic class in Antwerp - academic training at this time emphasized drawing through outline and contour, then modeling with tone the interiors of the outlined forms. Nothing could be more alien to Van Gogh's sensibility, as his drawings show. They have none of the grace and polish one expects from academic drawings off plaster casts, instead they are exercises in rough, assertive volumes. They are stunning drawings. But for an artist who was self-taught and constantly measured himself to others of his day, this must have been a bitter frustration. But he chose his own tools and technique instead of letting the predominant styles constrain him.
The catalogue essays are interesting, and add useful background to the show. The reproductions are almost ideal - all of the catalogue drawings are reproduced in color even when they are ink or pencil, essential in such atmospheric work. Having seen the show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art number of times already, I would guess that it will be judged as one of the most important in recent memory, and certainly the finest collection of drawings I have ever seen assembled in six rooms.
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"Drawing is the root of everything." Vincent Van Gogh, September 15, 2005
This large, heavy catalogue (almost 400 pages) is probably the definitive volume on the drawings of Vincent Van Gogh. It was complied jointly by the Van Gogh Musuem, Amsterdam and the Metropolitan Museum in New York. While there are in excess of 100 drawings (in pen and ink, graphite, chalk, charcoal, and watercolor), the bulk of this catalogue is devoted to scholarship of the written kind. And what a fine and informative series of extended essays are here!
COLTA IVES and SUSAN ALYSON STEIN from the Metropolitan Museum contribute elegant essays but the more quirky information about this strange but magnificent artist can be found in the contributions from SJRAAR VAN HEUGTEN and MARIJE VELLEKOOP of the Van Gogh Museum. One would not think that an artist of Van Gogh's nature, one who painted more with the palette knife than the brush and poured more energy and thick paint into his canvases that seem as though they are completely spontaneous - no one would imagine that he was a man who valued drawings as precursors for his finished art. But here in fine detail (at times far more than you'd ever want to know!) the writers discuss this affinity for drawing, even demonstrating the drawing to painting results as excellent examples.
We must wait a bit to see the actual exhibition for which this catalogue was devised to see if the drawings stand up as well on museum walls as they do in this volume. This is definitely a book for those addicted to Van Gogh's output and history. It is a fine though lengthy read. Grady Harp, September 05
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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the finest catalogues of Van Gogh's works ever written, November 29, 2005
Without question Vincent van Gogh: The Drawings is one of the finest exhibition catalogues I've ever seen. Beautifully illustrated, this book is a first-rate accompaniment to the Van Gogh drawings exhibition held in 2005 at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Having said that, for those who aren't able to attend the exhibition, this catalogue is the next best thing and definitely stands on its own.
The writers, the four curators (Ives and Stein from the Metropolitan Museum; Van Heugten and Vellekoop from the Van Gogh Museum) have compiled an outstanding catalogue that focuses on the 119 art works included in the exhibition. Each art work (mostly drawings, but some watercolours, letter sketches and paintings as well) is separately profiled with background information, analysis as well as exhibition history and provenance details. The breadth of the information is exhaustive. And at the same time extremely well written and insightful. The writers successfully walk the fine line of assembling a huge amount of very detailed information while at the same time presenting it in an engaging and entertaining manner.
In addition to the work by work profiles, the catalogue also includes historical and biographical sections which detail Vincent van Gogh's profession as an artist. These sections trace the course of Van Gogh's varied and remarkable career as a draftsman and, as a result, provide new and astute insights into each of the art works included. For those with a more specialized eye, there are also some interesting sections that analyze the technical aspects of the art works themselves (infrared reflectography, scientific analyses of the materials Van Gogh used, etc.). Technical yes, but written for both the specialist and the laymen. Yet another layer of insight into the astonishing opus of Van Gogh's drawings.
Vincent van Gogh: The Drawings is one of the largest and most comprehensive exhibitions of Van Gogh's drawings ever presented. And this catalogue is a superb companion to such an outstanding and successful exhibition. Highly recommended.
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