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November 2019: A Lecture on Vincent van Gogh with Professor Anthony Slinn
Thanks, Chris for this write-up We had something a little different this month. Not an artist demonstration but an enjoyably discursive lecture about Vincent van Gogh by Professor Anthony Slinn. This touched on both the relatively well-known - his heavily religious upbringing, his most famous paintings, his closeness and reliance upon his brother Theo, his ill-fated period with Paul Gauguin, the lack of appreciation in his own lifetime - and the less well-known, such as his early drawings and dark heavy paintings, that he was the second Vincent (born a year to the day after the death of his older namesake), his period of happiness teaching in London and so forth. |
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There was also plenty of art appreciation comment on the compositional, framing and colour choices of van Gogh.
The lecture was rounded off by playing Don McLean's hit single of 1972, "Vincent" [also known as "Starry Starry Night"] with it's numerous allusions to actual works by Vincent. Anthony Slinn had researched this carefully and was able to marry words with slide images as the song continued. An excellent finale. The lyrics, by the way, are:- |
Starry, starry night
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Starry, starry night
Paint your palette blue and grey Look out on a summer's day With eyes that know the darkness in my soul Shadows on the hills Sketch the trees and the daffodils Catch the breeze and the winter chills In colors on the snowy linen land Now I understand What you tried to say to me And how you suffered for your sanity And how you tried to set them free They would not listen, they did not know how Perhaps they'll listen now Starry, starry night Flaming flowers that brightly blaze Swirling clouds in violet haze Reflect in Vincent's eyes of china blue Colors changing hue Morning fields of amber grain Weathered faces lined in pain Are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand |
Now I understand ...
For they could not love you But still your love was true And when no hope was left in sight On that starry, starry night You took your life, as lovers often do But I could have told you, Vincent This world was never meant for one As beautiful as you Starry, starry night Portraits hung in empty halls Frameless heads on nameless walls With eyes that watch the world and can't forget Like the strangers that you've met The ragged men in the ragged clothes The silver thorn, a bloody rose Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow Now I think I know ... They would not listen, they're not listening still Perhaps they never will |
