Van Gogh & Gauguin in Amsterdam
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, from 9 February to 2 June 2002
Selfportrait, Vincent Van Gogh, 1888
"The meeting of Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin marked the beginning
of one of the most dramatic episodes in the history of modern art. The
tale of their collaboration, mutual admiration, friendship and rivalry,
definitively established the image of the possessed artist who gives up
everything for the sake of his work. The incident in which Van Gogh cut
off a piece of his ear after a fierce quarrel with Gauguin has become
legendary and still stirs the imagination of many. Less attention has
been paid to the fact that for both artists the collaboration proved to
be truly inspiring. This aspect is highlighted in the exhibition Van Gogh
& Gauguin at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam 9 February - 2 June 2002."
The exhibition Van Gogh & Gauguin extensively
highlights the personal
and artistic relationship between Van Gogh and Gauguin by means of
approximately 120 paintings, objects, drawings and letters.
The Exhibition
Les Misérables, Paul Gauguin, 1888
The first part of the exhibition presents works by Van
Gogh and Gauguin from 1886-1887, the period before and shortly after they met in Paris.
The next section presents the works produced by the two artists alone
in Arles and Brittany.
Madame Ginoux, Vincent Van Gogh, 1890.
Starting in the spring of 1888, a correspondence developed
between Van Gogh and Gauguin in which they kept each other up to date
with their work and exchanged ideas. The paintings from this period
reveal how their two styles began to show resemblances.
During the period in which the two artists lived
together in the famous "Yellow House" witnessed a series of paintings,
done by Gauguin and Van Gogh, that are closely related in style and
in subject matter.
Then comes the end of nine weeks of intense collaboration,
but it was far from being the end of their influence on each other.
The paintings in the exhibition of 1889-1890 that Van Gogh made in the
psychiatric clinic in Saint-Rémy and those that Gauguin made in Paris
and Brittany, contain various allusions to each other's earlier work.
After Van Gogh's death in 1890, Gauguin continued to roam the world in
search of his place in painting. He travelled twice to Tahiti, hoping to
find there an untainted culture. Reality proved different, however: the
influence exerted by colonialism had been great - this was also, at the same time, highlighted by an other traveller, Victor Segalen -, and little was left of
traditional customs. Gauguin nevertheless retained his notion of an
idealised world to the very end, which he brought to life in his work.
That he never forgot his sojourn in Arles is clear in the exhibition
from the still lifes of sunflowers from 1889 and 1901.
Madame Ginoux,