The exhibition, still running until June 30, tells the story of the artist and his legacy. There is no shortage of paintings later reproduced on postage stamps
The opportunity, valid until June 30th, to get closer to the work of Vincent van Gogh. Perhaps by discovering paintings that later ended up among the stamps. Like the “Portrait of a Man (portrait of Joseph-Michel Ginoux)” from 1888, oil on canvas preserved at the Kröller-Müller museum in Otterlo, in the Netherlands: it is present, for example, in the 0.50 local dollars issued by Antigua and Barbuda on 13 May 1991 to remember the artist a century after his death.
It happens at the “Pasquale Revoltella” Museum in Trieste, which is proposing the exhibition simply entitled “Van Gogh”. Curated by Maria Teresa Benedetti and Francesca Villanti, it offers over fifty works by the protagonist.
It documents – it is anticipated – the entire career of the painter, born on 30 March 1853. It begins with the story of the first five years of activity, focusing on the dark landscapes of his youth. Between 1881 and 1885 he mainly limited himself to drawing, he was aware of still having to acquire the technical tools to grow; he depicts sowers, potato harvesters, woodcutters, peasant women engaged in domestic tasks. His hand is revealed in the expressiveness of the faces, in the attitudes of the bodies, in the fatigue understood as an inevitable destiny.
In the two years in Paris, between 1886 and 1888, he absorbed the vital climate of the city, met and frequented his colleagues; he dedicated himself to a careful search for color in the impressionist vein, conquering a more immediate language, which became evident after moving to Arles.
The immersion in the light and heat of the South, starting from 1888, generated even greater emotional upheavals, which led him towards chromatic excesses. The strength of the line, of the vibrant and violent brushstrokes, make the representation of nature an example considered unique. The voluntary exile, during the spring of 1889, in the psychiatric hospital of Saint Paul de Mausole, near Saint Remy, marked a period that was not always peaceful but artistically fruitful. His intervention reaches heights never reached until then. In the last three months spent in Auvers-sur-Oise he produced a large number of works. On July 29, 1890 he decides to put an end to existence.
