The world of Van Gogh, 1853-1890 (Time-Life library of art)

I am always interested in Genius. It's fascinating, right? Those damned Geniuses – how do they...?

As for painting, for which I myself have zero facility, I collect (modestly according to my meager means), I lust (ooh, can I not get a Terry Wilkinson?), and I search out to sit in amazement.

I think

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most people see the Great Works on picture books, coffee mugs and mouse pads. What a lot of useless bullshit all that is. To see a masterpiece in person is to be confronted. SLAPPED. Ka-pow. That's the only way.

Traveling through Toledo, Ohio, one comes upon the Libby Gallery. Yes, of Libby Beans fame. Delicious, convenient and, judging by the collection the family amassed, lucrative. So what can you buy with all those beans? Go inside. Be surprised. Classic sculptures from ancient Rome, etc., and, of all things, a Matisse. That giftless scribbler, I thought, until I saw they had one, a woman with her thighs open, not nude but ooh, la la... I can faint merely recalling it.

See Van Gogh, if you can, in person, wherever he can be found. Maybe the best piece I have seen so far hangs just to the right of the main entrance of London's National Portrait Gallery. The colours are over sharp limes and wild blues with everything m o v I n g and don't be surprised to lose your carefully coiffed bouffant to the wind which leaps out at you from that spectacle, that masterpiece, that square canvas of genius.

This book is excellent. I am almost embarrassed to say that. A Time-Life book? Yes, go figure. Vincent's work, his life, his personality are exposed with patience, affection, compassion. Moreover is isn't mere biography, it's part art history, taking intriguing profiles of contemporary artists such as Gauguin, Pissaro, Vincent's love fuelled brother Theo, so that the atmosphere and influences that surrounded Van Gogh soon surround you as you read along, and finally, a new understanding emerges. I can't wait to see these paintings again with new eyes and deeper gratitude.

A real find, in the local thrift shop. You will need to look past the poverty of colour plates, the antiquated print quality, but the text is so redeeming, I wish I could press it into your palm and shout “Read it for his genius, this mad beautiful bastard,” – he's really complex, sincere, marvelous. And human.

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Vincent van Gogh only lived to age 37, with his art career spanning only ten years. Nevertheless, in that short time he created some 2,100 artworks, with close to 1,700 of them surviving. Some of which have reached iconic status, such as his sunflower pictures and this 1889 masterpiece, “The

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Starry Night.” As the author observes, “Together with Paul Cezanne, Georges Seurat and Paul Gauguin, Van Gogh is now ranked as one of the founding fathers of modern art.” But during his lifetime, he was not commercially successful, and his suicide at 37 came after years of mental illness, depression and poverty.

This book tells the story of van Gogh, as well as that of the influences on his life and work - both by artistic movements and by artist friends.

Van Gogh, largely self-taught, was known for his thick application of paint on canvas, called impasto; the texture of brush strokes or palette knife are clearly visible. This book includes beautiful color plates of notable examples.

As on online MOMA exhibit observes:

“The style he developed in Paris and carried through to the end of his life became known as Post-Impressionism, a term encompassing works made by artists unified by their interest in expressing their emotional and psychological responses to the world through bold colors and expressive, often symbolic images."

This Time Life Library of Art series is excellent at providing a detailed look of the cultural milieu of the time the artist lived, and for including a range of representations of the art that both made an influence on the artist, and was produced by the artist.

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