Lesson 4 - Schama - Van Gogh

"What am I, in the eyes of most people?" - This was the opening line of another documentary installment of Simon  Schama's Power of Art: Vincent Van Gogh. The documentary follows the life of Van Gogh and his "turbulent and overwhelmingly powerful" painting "Wheatfield With Crows".

Wheatfield with Crows

What's interesting after watching this video was our lack of knowledge about Van Gogh. The first time I ever learned about him was in art class in middle school and what I learned was that he was an artist and that he was crazy person who cut his own ear off and killed himself. Albeit true, there's more to the facts. Yes, he was crazy and was known for his "spasms of craziness" but he was also an "insatiable bookworm" who was fueled by a deep-seated religious drive. And some of the facts are slightly exaggerated. Van Gogh did not cut his full ear off, he only cut a piece off. And what is so shocking about his suicide was that he committed it a few weeks after his infamous painting "Wheatfield With Crows" emerged to the public, which was around the time that Schama described Van Gogh to "have his life together".

What I liked about this video was how it was dramatically filmed.  The camera would follow Schama and then cut to an acted scene with Vincent Van Gogh portrayed by an actor. Although it would follow the actions of the actor, it would have Schama with the voice over and we would also hear the brush strokes of the artist at work. Although its showing two different shots, the program does not give them their own separate screen times. We see the actor portraying Van Gogh go from eating dirt to eating his paint. Never has television taught art history with so much horrifying, yet appealing dramatics.

Vincent Van Gogh was so interesting to me because of his passion for his work. Schama states that "he had this belief that people wouldn't just see his picture, but would feel the rush of life in them; that by the force of his brush and dazzling color, they'd experience those fields, faces, and flowers in ways that nothing more polite or literal could ever convey. He believed that his art would reclaim what once belonged to religion- consolation for our reality through the relish of the gift of life." His life goal was to open eye and hearts and he did so with "Wheatfield With Crows."