The Starry Night

MoMA’s art exhibit, “Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night”, has left New York City for Amsterdam.  The artist died in 1890 at the age of 37,  two days after shooting himself in the chest with a revolver.  His last words - “La tristesse durera toujours” (the sadness will last forever).  His brief life offers up some lessons.

1.  Don’t drink (especially absinthe) and play with guns.

2.  Find your passion. Van Gogh failed at being a missionary, a pastor, and an art dealer before committing himself to becoming an artist.  Although his paintings and sketches were created over a 10 year career, most of his great works came in the last 2 years of his life.

3.  What goes around comes around. In a night of fury on December 23, 1888 Van Gogh attacked his friend and fellow artist Paul Gauguin with a razor.  Gauguin was not harmed but Van Gogh forever lost the lobe of his left ear and a long time friend.

4.  Write for posterity’s sake.  The popularity of Van Gogh’s work is tied to knowing so much about the life of the artist.  Van Gogh wrote hundreds of letters, 600 to his brother Theo alone, and because these survived the artist, we know the details of his life and the world around him.

Dr. Gachet

5.  Be empathetic to the physically and mentally ill. It is now believed Van Gogh suffered from epilepsy and possibly bipolar disorder.  The suffering he endured from his illnesses came as much from the ignorance and meanness of the people around him as the maladies themselves.

6.  Make the best of a bad situation. Arguably Van Gogh’s greatest work, The Starry Night, was painted in the last year of his life as he looked out of the window of a mental institution.  An institution he was confined to.

7.  Nature is a force in our universe and we should connect to it and appreciate its power.

8.  Good deeds will be returned. Joachin Pissaro is one of the curators of the current exhibit.  He is the great-grandson of the painter, Camille Pissaro, who had personally known Van Gogh and had recommended Dr. Paul Gachet to Theo, in an effort to help Vincent.  A portrait painting of the good doctor recently sold at auction for over $82 million dollars.