Van Gogh's Art
(J Posadas - 09.12.78)

In Van Gogh's pictures, the trees, the moving trees, the motion effect cause by the wind and the sun light, they were all created with an immense love. Everything is made with affection to human life, to the earth, the nature. He managed to reach singularity among these elements. It was the enormous feeling of human love, that allowed him to accomplish it all. None of the critics so far has expressed their views under this angle. They prefer to take Van Gogh as a crazy man.

Even the strong lines that appear in some trees, cast by the moving branches, are not shapes that give the impression of ugliness: they are just to communicate sadness. The frequent use of yellow as a dominant colour is aimed at transmitting clarity while leaving us with the impression that life is sad. However, when appraising his pictures, one doesn't feel sadness: on the contrary, the overall impression is a highly abstract view of a state of affairs. In other words, the author communicates sadness because it is undoubtedly present in daily life, but it is the human love that stands out constantly in Van Gogh's pictures. It is exactly this optimistic view of love and nature that impels people to act positively toward each other.

The representation of the human feelings

Van Gogh shows peculiar forms as well as aspects of motion that are rarely compared to those of other painters. Such forms and aspects of motion are present in the elements of his pictures: characters, flowers, trees and wind. He accomplished a situation which can only be expressed by means of a deep love for nature and other human beings. Bacause of that, when Van Gogh depicts workers labouring he also portrays himself as part of the scene, along with the trees and flowers. Besides, Van Gogh does not condemn capitalism for exploitation: he really sees love in that way. After him, many painters applied similar ideas to achieve condemnation. But Van Gogh doesn't paint to condemn. It is the case of the case in the pair of shoes painting, where they give the impression they are saying " I'm so tired! ". The shoes incorporate a statement of fatigue, that represents the great tiredness of the masses. He painted pictures of potatoes that look like they are saying: " the poor people eat this ". At that time, painters concentrated in portraying people from the bourgeoisie. Even when Van Gogh painted the cofee shops of Paris, he reached a combination of colors and borders to express lightness that he had inside of himself and wanted to transmit.

The picture " Potato eaters " is an accusation: they are not meant to portray the nature. For that, he used flowers to aim at the society as a charge of doing wrong. He not only displays the elements of an accusation but also justifies how porr people are betrayed by the rich people. Besides, he paints old (but not decrepit) people as a result of the brutalities of life. Goya, for example, painted old and decrepit kings, and nobody protested, because it was the truth.

Van Gogh's combination of colors and motion illustrations reflect a very deep love for nature and for the masses. He painted details of the fields, plantation and crops that could only be done through love. Van Gogh felt every little thing that he painted. In the twisted tree one sees Van Gogh.
In the future, the conception of the art will be modified. Art emerges from a fragmented and unequal society, full of exploitation, where intelligence is frequently oppressed or kidnapped. In the early years of human civilization, artistic productions used to be expressed with more purity because they emerged from the need to represent successful ways of survival; life was full of netural dangers. At that time, the art was purer then now because there was no mutual oppression. In the future, the art will result from more abstract and socially evolved behavioural motifs while keeping the same forms and purity as those of the primitive civilizations. The art is a continuous exercise centered in nature. It is the result of human creation: not the nature's. Human beings are a creation of nature, but the art is a creation of the human beings.
The colors used by Van Gogh don't give the impression of ugliness, they are very gloomy colors to show the aspects of the poverty. They are meant to exhibit people's means of life.
Van Gogh lived during the full capitalist ascent, where the colonial power is stamped on his paintings.
That is to say, the art collides against the power. The bright combination of colours give a harmony sensation to improve attraction. They are not repulsive colours. The colours represent people's feelings towards their mother, son and relationship with the masses. Bright colours do not transmit the feeling of power and force. On the contrary, they inspire noble feelings, without which art doesn't exist. Acting differently, an artist may suit a person or two, but he or she doesn't build the relationship between humanity and the painting.
In the picture of the wheat crop, for example, Van Gogh captures the men at work as a continuation of human beings themselves as well as their relationship.

The social criticism through the art
In the picture of the boots, for example, Van Gogh shows them as a product of the work and of the human life. He doesn't paint the splendor of capitalism, dispite its full ascent. At that time, capitalists were engaged in building the Eiffel Tower, in conquering Africa and Asia. But Van Gogh painted boots to remind the bourgeoisie of the human work. In turn, the impressionists were attracted by themes of the bourgeoisie. Some competent painters work fully with such themes but not Van Gogh. Because of that, he broke up with the impressionists.
Van Gogh's landscapes showed that there was a lot in his feelings, both in terms of loneliness and human love. The loneliness doesn't turn him in an opponent of humanity as if he were living in isolation or serving the power of elitism. This situation of loneliness resulted from a psychiatric problem that he solved by making paintings and joining close to the nature. In doing that, he became much closer to nature than to other human beings. But when he paints people, he depicts poor people in contact with the nature, along with their typical objets of real life, such as their shoes and not their boss' big belly. He paints a pair of shoes as an instrument belonging to the productive worker.
Last century's art cannot offer much more than what is already available since it is mostly based on individual demands. Artistic contributions could not motivate a collective development because they were funded to be private properties. But in socialism, one can develop, as a painter for instance, the same conception of original art found in the capitalist world while promoting collective develpment from that original contribution. The art appeared as a measure of the humans' constructive power, capable of building a superior way in which to own the nature and the social relationships. Therefore, the art shows that humans can construct much more than they are normally allowed to do, far beyond simple social relationships. This tends to rise a lot, but not with the same meaning that the art has now or with that possessed by the early painters because, in the future, the art will no longer be the work for an individual. It will be for the society.