Publisher's Synopsis
In Vincent van Gogh's art career, the five-year span from 1886-1890 marked the high point (and end point), providing unparalleled paintings from a troubled genius. It was to be an age of post-Impressionistic color, form and wonderment that the art world discovered only after the master's death.Along with other Post-Impressionists, such as Gauguin, Cézanne and Seurat, he shared a disdain for strictly portraying the natural world. His own technique for presenting an "expressive" version of Impressionism, a technique that could connect the viewer with emotion, however, was unique. In particular, his "swirls" in sky, water and land remind astronomers of mathematically observed space-dust movement, it reminds physicists of measurable fractal relationships, and hydrologists of the natural turbulence of water. Psychologists note that the artist claimed to have painted such pictures only when in a "psychotic state," while some believe such depictions were his artistic "transcription" of a bout of epilepsy or some other disorder. Whatever the reason, even if they were calculated variations in color intensity and image "twinkle," they seem to bring out forms of emotionality and vibrancy in his art that reveal a turbulent search for grace.
