Who killed Vincent van Gogh?
Art is an essential s part of life that builds our society and Artists are as important in our society as individuals from any other field. Artists with their creativity provide us with a space to reframe our perception of world around us and look beyond the obvious. They fill our lives with passion, diversity and color and still artists are little celebrated and even ignored in some societies. Artists get exploited every now and then and there role is simply undermined. An artist is as human as any other individual; his requirements are similar as are others to sustain life. Artists get offended, hurt and they feel annoyed as anyone does when their position is being hassled with. Various artists from past whom we deeply admire actually lived a miserable life and many of whom had to put an end to their lives and their profession just because people around them didn’t realized their importance and didn’t recognize their specialty. One such artist is Vincent van Gogh.
Vincent van Gogh is one of the most celebrated artists of our times. He was a Dutch post impressionistic painter who is among the most famous and influential figure in the history of western art. His paintings gave a new direction to art world and inspired many great artists including great French artist Henri Matisse. Van Gogh by his use of vibrant colors and expressive form and brush stokes inspired many art movements to follow.
Born on 30th March 1853 Van Gogh took painting as his profession in 1881. He created about 2,100 artworks before poverty and depression forced him to commit suicide at the age of 37. Now his paintings are worth millions of dollars and people spend their lives to get a glance of his original work. It’s ironic how an artist who during his lifetime could not afford a day’s meal is now one of the most expensive artists of the world. When we read about such an artist and learn that in his whole life he struggled to manage basic requirements and individual needs to survive, without spending any time we start to criticize the society of that time and demean people around that artist. We fail to understand how people of that time failed to recognize such a great artist. How could such a creative genius struggled to impress his audience and how, people around him mocked him to depression. All of these questions create sympathy for the artist and anguish towards the people who rejected his art. It’s awful that many great artists from past had to go through such harsh circumstances but, can we say that artists in today’s world are any better treated, more secure and/or enjoy more privileges?
Art being an important aspect of our society has not really been acknowledged and we have failed to recognize and appreciate its role. We intend more to sympathize a tragedy of past and pay little, or no heed, to recognize present crisis faced by this creative section of society. Artists in our society are forced to insecurity by limiting their opportunities and thus making them vulnerable to exploitation. Artists who are led by passion find themselves in the middle of nowhere when it comes to find a good client. Thus, leading them to accept an offer they themselves recognize to be destructive and exploiting. Artists are forced to work with clients who lack esteem for creativity and look down on artists as mere labors working for wage. Most agencies who hire artists force them to overwork and delayed payments without showing any respect for their creativity.
As we sympathize with artists who were forced to take harsh steps we must also try to think about the artist living in the next door. As we criticize society that lead artists like Van Gogh to take his life we must also take a look around and recognize problems faced by artists around us. What happened in the past cannot be changed but we can change our present if we work together and appreciate living artists. Artistic career must not be weighed on how many miseries he faced but the appreciation he received during his lifetime. Artists are not destined to suffer and collectively we can change this dogma.