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Book Cover
E-book
Author Heinich, Nathalie

Title Glory of Van Gogh : an Anthropology of Admiration
Published Princeton : Princeton University Press, 1996

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Description 1 online resource (223 pages)
Contents ""Contents""; ""Preface""; ""Part I DEVIATION, RENEWAL""; ""One From Silence to Hermeneutics""; ""Two The Golden Legend""; ""Part II RECONCILIATION""; ""Three Van Gogh versus Vincent""; ""Four Madness and Sacrifice""; ""Part III PILGRIMAGE""; ""Five Money As a Medium of Atonement""; ""Six The Gaze As a Medium of Atonement""; ""Seven Presence As a Medium of Atonement""; ""Conclusion The van Gogh Effect""; ""APPENDIXES""; ""A Van Gogh and Art Criticism in France, 1888� 1901""; ""B Chronology""; ""Notes""; ""Index""
Summary The image of the great artist as a suffering visionary is a recent invention, observes sociologist Nathalie Heinich - an invention rooted in the "canonization" of Vincent van Gogh as a cultural hero for the twentieth century. Heinich explores how and why the impoverished and mentally tormented van Gogh came to be glorified shortly after his suicide at the age of 37. Did the secular art world need a rebel-saint of its own? In considering this possibility, the author explores the history of efforts to celebrate van Gogh, whether in biographies or on T-shirts, showing how the details of his life have been constructed according to the pattern of a Christian saint's rise to recognition. These biographical details circulated first as anecdotes, then as historical truths, and finally became legendary motifs defining individual greatness. Heinich organizes her book around the stages that characterize the life of a saint - deviation, renewal, reconciliation, and pilgrimage, the latter culminating in visits to van Gogh's burial site and the competition to buy his paintings or "relics." Heinich explores the economics of the art market and the themes that make up the van Gogh myth, such as the personalization of artistic grandeur, the celebration of the interiority of the creator, and the glorification of abnormality. By examining the mythology that helps drive artistic investment, she forces us to reconsider the nature of admiration and particularly the notion that obscurity during an artist's lifetime is a guarantee of true genius
Notes Print version record
Subject Gogh, Vincent van, 1853-1890 -- Appreciation
SUBJECT Gogh, Vincent van, 1853-1890 fast
Subject Art appreciation
Form Electronic book
Author Browne, Paul L
ISBN 9781400821884
1400821886