Vincent van Gogh’s life story is as famous as his art.
People who don’t know an Impressionist from an Expressionist painting know that the tormented artist cut off his ear (actually an earlobe), that he shot himself to end his tragically short life (1853-1890) and that his paintings of sunflowers and his portraits have sold for world-record prices.
Maybe it’s time to set aside the stories of self-mutilation, mental breakdown and the multimillion-dollar auction prices and just look at the art.
A new exhibit opening Saturday at the Seattle Art Museum gives us an opportunity to do just that.
“Van Gogh to Mondrian: Modern Art from the Kroller-Muller Museum” brings 12 van Gogh paintings and 10 drawings to Seattle. Visitors will see some of his best portraits and landscapes painted in the bright colors and the vivid, expressive style of this titan of modern art.
Among the works are “Cafe Terrace at Night,” in which a starry night sky hovers over an open cafe on a cobblestone street. There’s a brooding self-portrait from 1887 and a lushly beautiful painting of the garden at the mental asylum at Saint-Remy.
“Still Life with a Plate of Onions,” painted just after he had been released from the hospital, is in its own way a self-portrait of the artist, showing the things that were important in his life such as his books and letters to his beloved brother Theo.
The exhibit, which runs through Sept. 12 at the downtown museum, is rich with works by a host of other famous modernist artists, including Pablo Picasso, Georges Seurat and Piet Mondrian.
The 80-some paintings and drawings are from the Kroller-Muller Museum in Otterlo, The Netherlands. Helene Kroller-Muller was an extraordinary woman who, beginning in the early 1900s, amassed one of the world’s great collections of van Gogh paintings as well as major important modern artists of the day.
With her husband Anton Kroller, she became one of the 20th century’s greatest patrons of modern art and in 1938 the museum containing their collection opened. This exhibit (which goes to the High Museum in Atlanta after its Seattle run), includes some of the finest works from that collection.
Among the paintings on view are landmark works in cubism by Picasso and pointillism by Seurat and Paul Signac, as well as a comprehensive survey of modernist Dutch painters, notably the abstract painter Piet Mondrian.
The galleries are arranged thematically to include such genres as cubism, symbolism and neo-Impressionism. The exhibit is just the right size so you can take time, linger over what you like and not feel overwhelmed with the prospect of too much art and too little time.
The exhibit also includes some furniture plus some architectural drawings for the Kroller-Mueller Museum executed by some of the leading architects of the 20th century
The van Gogh paintings, with their vivid colors and brushwork, will likely be the big draw of this exhibit.
The artist lived a tormented life, committing suicide at the age of 37. But his astounding legacy lives on in the strange beauty and artistry of his paintings. We’re lucky to be able to see some of them so close to home.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
