N. N. 6-ART SCHOOL-COLORS AND EMOTIONS-Vincent VAN GOGH, the charm of ′′ COLOR AS A SYMBOLIC LANGUAGE Short analysis of ′′ The SEMINATOR ′′ (Part Two)

Emotionally, although depressed and devastated by a series of failures, both in labor and in love, Van Gogh tends to maintain a sober containment of his feelings. This can be a reflection of the fact that he has just started dedicating himself to art after the failure of his potential career in the ministry and after further failure as an art merchant.
In the following 3 years (circa 1882 until 1885) Van Gogh was obsessively interested in color adaptation to his work. His letters attest meticulous attention in terms of shades, tones, brightness and shades. Over time, he began using complementary colors because they ′′ increase their mutual effects more intensely ′′ (Metzger & Walther, 1996, p. 58).

Finally he directed his greater efforts to try to gain more and more depth and stability in his paintings through the basic use of colors, contrasting colors, intensity and saturation. The following extract from one of his letters shows the increasingly important role of color in his work: ′′ These things that are relevant for complementary colors, simultaneous contrast and mutual devaluation of complementary colors, are the first and most important problem : the second is the mutual influence of two similar colors, such as carmine and vermilion, or pink-lilac and blue-lilac...." (Van Gogh Letter #428, dated October 1885. (Suh, 2006).
During a short stay in Paris in 1886, Van Gogh began to discover the most intense potential of color, and his work moved further and further away from the Dutch origins, pushing towards bright colors and tones of impressionist colors. According to Gayford (2006), he was fascinated by the possibility of color as a ′′ symbolic language ". For him it was an instinctive form of communication, although at that time such symbolic language, which could have allowed him to express his feelings, not existed. At one point Van Gogh came to blame his excessive drinking and smoking for the ′′ mental tiredness of elaborating complex harmonies of notes and colors ′′ (Gayford, 2006, p. 191). Similarly, the most common form of synesthesia seems to be the ′′ colorful audition ", sounds (such as music or voices) that are experienced as colors (Carpenter, 2001). For the synesthetic, this is a form of sensory overstimulation and the result is a physical breakdown caused by this experience.

In June 1888, while living in Arles, Van Gogh uses color as a language and its symbols become even stronger. He judges the ′′ Millet sower ′′ as grey and colorless, and wonders if it is possible to ′′ paint the Seminator in color, with a simultaneous contrast of yellow and purple..."
Van Gogh actually has many doubts about the possibility of doing it: ′′ you set the job and you end up falling into a.... color metaphysics, a mess from which it is difficult to come out with any credit ′′ (Van Gogh Letter #503 , June 1888). This is why he is driven to affection repeated tests.

At the same time, as his color palette is exploding, the intensity of his psychological and emotional life becomes increasingly difficult to keep under control. When Van Gogh creates his first color ′′ Seminator he's optimistically waiting for Gauguin to start their artistic collaboration. Van Gogh continues to work on the Colour Seminator, in June of the same year it is: ′′ Gloriously hopeful - expressed by yellow and purple ′′ (Gayford, 2006, p. 183). But during the nine weeks Gauguin spent in Arles, the relationship between the two and Van Gogh's mental condition recorded significant changes.
Gauguin described their meeting in Arles yellow house:
′′ Two beings, him and me, one truly a volcano and the other, hot too, but inside. Some sort of struggle had to happen... First of all, I was struck by finding clutter everywhere and in every aspect. The color box barely enough to contain them all, squeezed tubes, which have never been closed, and despite all this confusion, all this mess, everything shone on the canvas..... with all these yellows on the purple, all this work on complementary colors, messy work on his part, only he had come to monotonous, subtitled and incomplete harmonies, just missing the sound of trumpet ". (Gauguin, Ott, 1903, Letter to Mercure de France, from Stein , 1986, p. 124).
Gauguin himself may have been the ′′ trumpet ".

In November 1888, the relationship between the two had become intolerable. Van Gogh had deteriorated mentally as Gauguin was increasingly frustrated and impatient. In December Van Gogh threatened Gauguin with a razor, then mutilated his ear lobe. After that incident, Gauguin left Arles and the two never saw each other again.
Perhaps predicting what was imminent, in November 1888 Van Gogh produced a second canvas of the Seminator that showed even more dramatic use of color.
In this image, a huge sun dominates ′′ very low in the yellow-green sky - just as Vincent described it --- with some stripes of pink clouds... ′′ (Gayford, 2006, p. 186).

Gayford then goes on to describe this second melancholy picture. Either way, the color and mood Van Gogh felt firsthand dominates painting.
It will follow - Part 3 in the next post no. 7.

Massimo Roger
President of the UNESCO Club of Genoa metropolitan city
President of International Action Art-ITALY

Massimo Ruggero

 Massimo Ruggero
 President of the UNESCO Club of Genoa metropolitan city
President of International Action Art-ITALY