Week 1: Maritain and Van Gogh’s Wheat Field with Cypresses
In reading Maritain’s description of the artist in Art and Scholasticism, I instantly thought of Vincent Van Gogh. He seems to match the haunted artist that Maritain describes, not simply because of the missing ear, but from his writings which portrayed the great ache of his vocation as artist.
Similar to the point of Maritain, while many of Van Gogh’s works depict nature, none feel as though they are trying to replicate them perfectly in appearance. His distinct brush work and texture of his paintings as seen in Wheat Field with Cypresses seem to almost reach out to us in order to draw us in, and sweep us away gently with the continually waves and swirls that he uses so often. We are not swept away in a vivid replica of a place we once laid eyes upon, but we are pulled into what somehow feels familiar. If beauty points out what is true, the skies of Van Gogh are beautiful. They do not teach what clouds or stars look like but what they can at times feel like. In Van Gogh’s Wheat Field with Cypresses the landscape and sky draw our eyes up in wonder. As if knowing that the likeness of the sky can not be grasped on canvas but that truth of nature, and the divine, demands to be attempted and shared regardless.
Visiting the traveling exhibition of the “Van Gogh Alive” experience was the most unique and engaging encounter with art that I have ever had. The exhibition also brought to light the writings of Van Gogh which came back to me while reading Maritain. Van Gogh said of himself, “a great fire burns within me, but no one stops to warm themselves at it, and passers-by only see a wisp of smoke.” I believe he was not simply referring to greatness in himself that was going unnoticed but also a way of experiencing the world that he was trying to share, yet remained trapped in his attempts. Maritain speaking of the haunted experience of the artist, “unable to enjoy the substance and the peace of wisdom, he is caught by the harsh exigencies of the mind and the speculative life and condemned to every servile misery of temporal practice and production” (Maritain, 36). Maritain’s view of the artist in service to the beautiful offers a helpful view of the life and motivations of the artist, especially the intellectual nature of art. I find this point helpful to ponder when considering the effect of how art is received and understood by others. Not only is the artist tasked with feeling compelled to make art but there is the need for it to be intelligible as well.