cover image Becoming van Gogh

Becoming van Gogh

Timothy Standring and Louis van Tilorgh. Denver Art Museum–Yale Univ., $50 (288p) ISBN 978-0-300-18686-4

Painter Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) is often romanticized as a tortured and unappreciated genius, famous for his ear-mutilation as much as for his colorful, energetic paintings. This handsome book by Denver Art Museum curator Standring and Van Gogh Museum researcher van Tilborgh, published in association with this fall’s exhibition at the Denver Art Museum, sketches a different character, that of an artist who spent his early career making carefully choreographed choices about his subject matter, his religion, his skills, and his influences, in order to position himself as an important new voice in the art world. Essays by eminent art historians (including Simon Kelly, Richard Kendall, Teio Meedendorp, Nicole Myers, and Everett van Uitert) discuss the various ways van Gogh aimed for originality and excellence in his work, always striving to express “universal truths about the human condition, which he held as art’s highest purpose.” The eclectic early works included in this glossy monograph show us how one of the great masters actively engaged with conventions of form and style, geography, and the world of ideas in order to create something totally new. 262 color illus. (Nov.)