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Van Gogh’s Electrified Face Stopped Me Cold
Has a work of art ever stopped you dead in your tracks?
Have you ever been surprised by joy?
Ever been blind-sided by a work of art?
Ever been mugged by a painting?
Vincent Van Gogh mugged me in broad daylight.
Dare to be vivid.

Van Gogh’s Electrified Face
The first painting of the Van Gogh exhibition stoped me cold like an electric fence throbbing with voltage. His electrified face was charged, vibrating, buzzing with luminous energy. Each whisker of his signature red beard was a neon street lamp. His pale skin was illuminated from within.

I was at the Art Institute for the last weekend of “Van Gogh and the Avant Garde: The Modern Landscape.” Between 1882 and 1890 a small group of avant garde painters flocked to the northwest suburbs of Paris to paint a changing landscape of Paris’ industrializing northwest suburbs. This area along the Seine River had long been a popular spot for recreation and relaxation but was becoming increasingly populated with coal, gas, and manufacturing facilities in the last decades of the 19th century. And while its industrial development was an unappealing development to many, these artists found in the changing physical and social landscape a fresh and rich source of creativity.

I’d seen plenty of examples of Van Gogh’s self portraits before – mostly in art books, and a couple at the museum. And I’m pretty sure I’d seen this particular painting before.

But today someone turned on the juice of this electric epiphany!

I stopped and stared.

Angled for a better view.

Backed away to take in a broader view.

Got up close and studied details.

Took a picture. (see attached)

And the whole time this, this *presence* held me fast. It’s no wonder art and religion are often closely linked.

Eventually the vision dimmed enough for me to proceed into the galleries of the exhibition itself. I happened upon an obviously knowledgeable woman leading a tour. (Turned out she was the actual curator of the exhibit!) I’m a sucker for expertise, so I tagged along for the tour and learned so much about what these avant garde artists were up to.

They played with unexpected oppositions in their paintings — like recreational / industrial, factory / field, city / country, manufactured / natural.

And they experimented with applying small strokes or dots of color to a surface so that from a distance they visually blend together. Instead of the painter blending the colors on the canvas, your eye and brain do the blending. But the experience of viewing the painting is somehow different.

It’s more *vivid* and energized.

Applying these techniques Van Gogh’s face became its own kind of rich, landscape.

So much of my life has been about learning to see what I couldn’t see before.

I’m seeing faces a little differently today.

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