Chapter 25 vote for burning feelings

I remember reading a reporter’s interview with Hemingway a long time ago. The reporter asked: What do you think are the basic conditions for being a creator? Hemingway's answer is wonderful, he said: "Unpleasant childhood!" When I actually stood in front of Van Gogh's painting, this passage surged into my heart like lightning.It has been ninety-two years since Van Gogh passed away, but his life seems to have a strange fire. Every time I think about it, it makes people feel trembling, as if the fire of his life has been burning in us and has never stopped. Van Gogh is the artist I admire the most in the history of art. I almost memorize all his paintings printed in albums. Therefore, when I go to a foreign country, I always look at his paintings carefully when I visit art galleries.His restless and flowing lines are like waves slamming against rocks. I think that even if someone is as indifferent and hard as a rock, he will be eroded by its force, especially when the waves are full of poverty, struggle, The salt of never-ending struggle.

Almost every large modern art museum has a collection of Van Gogh's paintings.I was most impressed by his paintings twice, once at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and once at the National Gallery of Art in Washington. There are more than 90 exhibition rooms in the West Wing of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, two of which exhibit Van Gogh's paintings.I walked for a whole morning in the east hall where the modern art of the twentieth century was exhibited. In the afternoon, I started to look at the medieval paintings in the west hall. I saw more than forty exhibition rooms. The snow boots didn't fit my feet well, and the soles of my feet were blistered, and I could barely move on a bench in the art museum.I picked up the brochure and looked at it casually. Unexpectedly, the exhibition room next to the exhibition room where I was sitting was the exhibition room of Impressionism. I thought of Van Gogh, and my body was immediately electrified, and I felt a desire to go and have a look. Van Gogh!

Soon, I stood in front of Van Gogh's painting and meditated deeply, sighing deeply.I don't know what is the force that makes this artist appear to be so disturbed and flowing under the bright sunlight. The wilderness he painted is like a surging sea, and the waves are pushed from far away; The blazing flames that come out burn in nature; his clouds, his sky, his wind, and his brushes all fluctuate like dancing in the air.This kind of powerful movement does not come from the whole painting, but every stroke and every small piece of paint has an infinite movement gesture, which makes us feel the great creativity flowing in the earth.

I couldn't help being fascinated by watching it, and deeply remembered my trembling heart when I was young when I watched "The Biography of Van Gogh" under a lonely lamp. It wasn't until a black administrator patted me on the shoulder and said, "Sir, it's time, the museum is closing." I woke up from the mysterious scene of Van Gogh's painting. It turned out that I had stood in front of his painting for an hour.I walked out the door, and suddenly there was a heavy snow in Washington's sunny weather, and the earth was covered with a layer of shining silver. How peaceful is this silvery land!But in the deepest place, the interpretation made by the great heart for the earth still beats there.

The other time was at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where there is a famous "Impression Hall". I chose a Monday when there were few people to visit the Impression Hall. The roof of the Impression Hall is full of glass covers, and the light is pouring down. splash down. In the Impressionist Hall, all the masters of the Impressionist period gathered here, Manet, Monet, Renoir, Degas, Cézanne, Jira, Gauguin, Rodriguez, all of them are shining stars , of course there would be no Van Gogh, the greatest Dutch painter of the nineteenth century. The Impression Hall is square, and people standing in the middle can look around. The location where Van Gogh is exhibited is right between Gauguin and Cézanne.There are two paintings that moved me the most.One is his famous self-portrait, the artist seems to inject life juice into his own image, burning in a ball of fire; the other is yellow flowers, each flower is twisting, as if it took a lot of effort to open When it comes out, it is full of joy of life, but also seems to be born in a basin with infinite grievances.

After reading Van Gogh's paintings quietly and carefully, I retreated to the middle of the impression hall, wanting to see how others appreciate Van Gogh's paintings and what expressions they will have when they look at them.Then I found an interesting phenomenon. Everyone always spends the longest time in front of his paintings, especially when he walks in front of his self-portraits, he looks very solemn and quiet, just like facing the real Van Gogh, listening Listening to his passionate and passionate words. I suddenly had a strange idea, if artists could also vote, the one with the highest number of votes in the Impression Hall must be Van Gogh.If you can vote for two, then Van Gogh must be the highest and Gauguin the second.

There is no profound reason for this, and the most important thing is that we are not voting for Van Gogh, but for burning emotion.Any art that really burns life and emerges must have a moving factor. In fact, Van Gogh did not paint for a long time. He only really painted for ten years. In his early years, he aspired to be a writer or a religious man (martyred for the people in the mining area).In the past ten years, every one of his paintings has crackling sound, he is burning, and he opened his chest to let people see his fiery heart.When we walked into the world of Van Gogh, it was like a hungry bee flying into a garden full of flowers. We were confused. What is the power that makes people achieve this kind of emotional infinity?

In this increasingly rational and cruel world, people always suppress their emotions. There are fewer and fewer artists like Van Gogh. Therefore, if there is a chance to vote for artists, I think I will vote for them like everyone else. A vote of burning emotion. — May 7, 1982