"To do good work, one must eat well, be well-housed. Have one's fling from time to time, smoke one's pipe and drink his coffee in peace.-VVG"
Early this year, I tried to paint a Van Gogh. My favorite among his artworks, Field with Poppies. That, after buying this small booklet of his paintings and his life story. But till now, the white canvas remains as is, white. First, I haven't even finished the crowned prince and princess painting I started some months back...lah-di-da.
Anyway, going back to VG in SG...I was talking on the phone with my friend Mitzi,who just came from the Merlion city, back in July, when she started gushing about her visit to ArtScience Museum, with Ricky, her hubby, where VG's paintings were installed! I almost died of envy right there and then. (Good thing, I had yummy spaghetti lunch to look forward to. My title should read, how my yummy spaghetti saved me hehe.) But I said, I've no plans to go to the City of Fines this year. My plan is to go there next year with my mom and dad. So, VG will have to wait. But she said he can't, he's only there till Oct. Who knows where he's going next. It's SG now or never. But I thought, maybe, I'll see him in another city. In the next lifetime. Boo-hoo-hoo.
But what do you know, a few days or weeks later, another friend was enticing me to go to Sing. With VG on my mind, I said why not! And by Sept, I was engulfed and awashed by magnificence; amazed by the masterpieces of the the great Vincent. I could've stayed there all day in awe. But no, the "kids" were in haste. They wouldn't even let me see the presentation for the third time. I only saw it twice! We had to go ride The Flyer and buy a laptop, part of the agenda for the day.
Anywho, I'm posting here the pics we took inside the gallery. Taking pics inside is forbidden but as they say, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. In this case, disregard the signage and start shooting. Like everybody else. ;p
For the record, those are the only pics I took. The ff. were by my friends. In short, I've only 2 offenses. Them, a lot ;p
The culprits!
The culprits doing footsies! Ah-huh!
Quotable quotes from the eccentric artist:
"Great things are done by a series of good things put together."
"A good picture is equivalent to a good deed."
(Take that CCP and Mideo Cruz! But then again, "good" is subjective.)
"An artist needn't be a clergyman or a churchwarden, but he certainly must have a warm heart for his fellow men."
Facts You'd Probably Not Care to Know; But Since I Cared Enough to Write Down, Can You Just Pls. Read Along?
1. Van Gogh created approximately 900 paintings in 10 years. (Whoa!That's almost 2 paintings a week.) At one time, 80 paintings in 10 weeks!(That's more than one per day.)
2. Only sold 1 painting in his lifetime.
(Bummer! That's probably why he was depressed, distressed and cut off his earlobe. And not because of a disagreement with artist friend Paul Gaugin. Kidding. You want more cheez? My book says, he presented his earlobe or a portion of it, as some claims, to a prostitute in a brothel. Needless to say, but I'm saying anyway, he was mentally deranged that time. You can see in his lines, how troubled his mind is. Or heart. Mentally deranged but none the less, a master.)
3. Created his most famous painting, Starry Night (which inspired a song of the same title), inside an asylum in St. Remy de Provence, France.
4. VG wrote 800 letters in his lifetime. Mostly to his brother, Theo, whom he loved and who cared for him so.
5. VG shot himself in Auvers, France and died 2 days later at the age of 37.
6. Thanks to VG's brother's wife (no name given) who devoted herself to collecting VG's paintings and letters for his work to get due recognition, we now enjoy all these beauty.
