I did some post about Van Gogh and this one expresses my concerns about how his biography led to many misunderstanding about his work. Finally I find people with the same concerns and freeing Vincent from this mistake that caused a lot of harm for the fully comprehension of his work. As I said his letters are the source for understanding his deep views on art and the joy painting was for him.
This BBC video "Painted with words", presented by Alan Yentob, with Benedict Cumberbatch in the role as Van Gogh is a great way to understand Vincent because it's done with excerpts of his letter but I still think that they focus on biography instead of the many remarks he did about his painting, the books he read, other artist's work and other issues we can find at the letters.
The paintings they show are those we know and Van Gogh left 800 paintings that are spread all over he world. Still it's worth watching and don't postpone because I believe that BBC will soon take it out from Youtube. This is the first part and you can see the other five clicking "part 2, 3, 4, 5 , 6) from here being the number 3 and beginning of 4 the one that has more to do with Vincent's art free from his biography. What is striking is that at number 4 he is diagnosed bipolar disorder which is an absurd since this diagnose is being done today more than a century after Vincent's life.
But one question about his biography I would like to have clarified: how can it be that he didn't sell anything during his life if his brother worked in Paris for an art gallery and was the responsible for selling Vincent's works? Irony?
Benedict Cumberbatch did a great work! Standing ovation!
Left: Van Gogh 13 years-old
