EKPHRASIS #1 Van Gogh, Suicided by Society
Antonin Artaud’s Van Gogh: Suicided by Society (1947) is a passionate defense of Vincent van Gogh’s sanity – and a damning critique of psychiatric institutions. In his analysis of van Gogh’s paintings, Artaud argues that Van Gogh was a visionary – one that society deliberately drove to suicide to silence the ‘intolerable truths’ that he e
Antonin Artaud’s Van Gogh: Suicided by Society (1947) is a passionate defense of Vincent van Gogh’s sanity – and a damning critique of psychiatric institutions. In his analysis of van Gogh’s paintings, Artaud argues that Van Gogh was a visionary – one that society deliberately drove to suicide to silence the ‘intolerable truths’ that he expressed through his art. Van Gogh’s vibrant, turbulent paintings were not, Artaud claims, the products of mental illness. Instead, they were the direct, raw expressions of a reality that lesser minds were too uncomfortable to face. Ultimately, Artaud claims that van Gogh’s suicide exposes the cruelty of a society that alienates and destroys its most gifted individuals.
Translated by RJ Dent. Contains colour illustrations.