Van Gogh trabajoacute; como marchante de arte con escaso eacute;xito; intentoacute; convertirse en predicador; hizo incursiones como ilustrador de revistas y; por uacute;ltimo; tuvo una carrera de pintor tan brillante como corta. Cuando murioacute; en Francia a los 37 antilde;os sus cuadros se amontonaban; sin que casi nadie los mirase; en los armarios; desvanes y habitaciones de sus parientes; amigos y acreedores. Sin embargo; en su breve y tempestuosa vida; Vincent van Gogh habiacute;a cambiado el curso del arte occidental para siempre. Trabajando con la plena colaboracioacute;n del Museo Van Gogh de Aacute;msterdam; Steven Naifeh y Gregory White Smith; ganadores del Premio Pulitzer por su biografiacute;a de Jackson Pollock; han tenido acceso a materiales ineacute;ditos; incluyendo correspondencia familiar hasta ahora desconocida; para recrear; con increiacute;ble viveza y una sorprendente precisioacute;n psicoloacute;gica; la extraordinaria vida del pintor. Los autores arrojan nueva luz sobre muchos de los aspectos inexplorados de la existenciade Van Gogh: su permanente lucha para encontrar su lugar en el mundo; su intensa relacioacute;n con su hermano Theo; su erraacute;tica y tumultuosa vida sentimental y sus ataques de depresioacute;n y problemas mentales. Ofrecen ademaacute;s un convincente e inesperado relato sobre las circunstancias de su muerte que da un vuelco a las teoriacute;as manejadas hasta ahora. Esta monumental biografiacute;a es; sin duda; el retrato definitivo de uno de los grandes genios de la historia del arte.
#1160164 in eBooks 2012-11-21 2012-11-21File Name: B00A6YC9JU
Review
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. The scholar takes popular culture seriouslyBy stephen walkerAt last! Someone with academic credibility has delved into the subject of modern popular expressions of "Celtic" and Irish expressions of identity. Scholars of Celtic art history have tended to remain aloof from how the art form has been adapted to a living tradition; one that is personal; powerfully meaningful and also commercially viable. Maggie Williams has done an excellent job of overcoming the scholarly tendency to ignore; if not distain; the phenomenon of the modern Celtic Renaissance. It is through reuse that gives medieval Celtic art a vast audience and inspires creative reuse of the style as something meaningful and contemporary.In exploring the delusion that things Celtic; art forms; attitudes; spirituality; etc are somehow constant; she gets to the heart of the matter. This unspoken assumption of the popular audience for Celtic art; that the essence of the Celtic identity is not dependent on time or place; leads to fantasies that are implausible to the scientific scholar. But it is just as implausible; as the Iroquois traditionally believe that the world exists on the back of a giant turtle. No serious anthropologist would study the beliefs of the Iroquois by beginning with how ridiculous their creation myth is. But since so much of "Celtic" identity is rooted in what passed for scientific theories of the 19th century; it has been fair game to treat the popular myths that grew out of early archaeology as the perpetuation of errors. I am very glad to see Williams show the subject respect and proceed with an honest curiosity.Being a book about the visual and applied arts; I think it would benefit from more illustrations and perhaps some more accessible language. All-in-all Icons of Irishness is a long overdue exploration of why Celtic art is a living tradition.