On National Public Radio Host Frank Browning talks about the new edition of Van Gogh’s letters with Julian Bell, a painter and historian:
Mr. BELL: Here is someone with this extraordinary surplus of spirituality energy. He kind of doesn’t know how to handle it, still less, does anyone around him know how to handle it? Until this burst of exaltation who runs through his (unintelligible) in 1888, when his painting breaks through to extraordinary levels.
BROWNING: Thick color impregnated his canvasses, intense yellows, greens and blues made stars pierce the heavens and sunflowers leap from their vases. But Van Gogh’s dream of creating an artist community in Arles collapsed after his famous fight with his friend Paul Gauguin that led to the slicing of his ear and his self-commitment in a mental asylum.Continue Reading