HOW MUCH DOES YOUR PAINTING COST, MR. VAN GOGH?
DR. MARTIN HARRIS: “Do you know what it feels to become insane? It’s a war between being told who you are and knowing who you are… Which do you think wins?
—Unknown, 2011, Jaume Collet Serra.
IF I’M WHO I AM because I’m
who I am and you’re who you are because you’re who you are, then I’m who I am
and you’re who you are. If, on the other hand, I’m who I am because you’re who
you are, and if you’re who you are because I’m who I am, then I am not who I am
and you are not who you are.
After reading
what looks like a tongue twister, imagine that your close friend purchases a plain
white painted canvas from an avant-garde artist for $100,000.
What would
you do?
1) Tell him
he’s nuts. He’s been cheated.
2) You hide
your astonishment and flash a smile.
3) Tell him
he’s been brave for his bet.
Art is a satire
written by French playwright Yasmina Reza. This sophisticated play was opened
in Paris
What’s
friendship? —Adulation, respect, safety, admiration? Is friendship a slippery
enterprise?
What’s art?
What’s the value of art? Is money the reference of quality?
I also wonder: What if
society lacks appreciation of a very high level art? They say, the sheer pleasure an artist receives from simply creating it. Does it compensate?
Reflecting
upon this questions, I got the answers through one of my favorite painters: Vincent
Van Gogh.
As the
saying goes, maybe I don’t know but I know what I like. I recall that when I
lived in Madrid , I used to go to the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum
Vincent Van
Gogh was an artist who lived for art’s sake. He spent his whole life painting.
He started right after his father threw him out—he wanted his son to become a
minister—, and kept painting despite struggling to make a living until his last
days. He never became famous in his lifetime. He sold lots of paintings to his
brother, Theo. Actually, Theo Van Gogh was sending money to his brother Vincent
every week (though he would starve three days to purchase paints and canvasses1). His
brother, in return, received the paintings to resell them and thus to get his
money back. He could only sell one.
About a
year before his death, Vincent said in a letter to his brother, “As for me, I shall go on working, and here
and there something of my work will prove of lasting value—but who will there
be to achieve for figure painting what Claude Monet has achieved for landscape?
However, you must feel, as I do, that someone like that is on the way—Rodin?—he
does not use color—it won’t be him. But the painter of the future will be a
colorist the like of which has never yet been seen.
But I’m sure I am right to think that it will
come in a later generation, and it is up to us to do all we can to encourage
it, without question or complaint.”
How much
does your painting cost, Mr. Van Gogh?—He himself knew it.
1 Sometimes, your passion feeds you more than food.
Copyright © 2012 by THE PYTHAGOREAN STORYTELLER. All rights reserved.
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