Vincent van Gogh. Pittore colto

Van Gogh the master of sunflowers, Van Gogh the painter of the asylum and suicidal madness, Van Gogh the solitary artist immersed in the countryside, the self-taught man without many cultural connections. These are just some of the stereotypes that have influenced and still influence the narration of the myth of Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) to the public. The tragic existential dimension of the character is too often emphasized to the detriment of a correct knowledge of the true creative greatness of the Dutch genius.

Van Gogh was a painter but also an extremely cultured intellectual; and to understand the complexity of his personality, beyond the most overused clichés, it is important and necessary to focus not only on his poetics and his pictorial technique but also on the richness and depth of the cultural interests that are at the basis of his his vision of life and art.

This exhibition, which the MUDEC in Milan presents to the public from 21 September 2023 to 28 January 2024, intends to go precisely in this direction: it overturns the perspective of the Van Gogh stereotype and presents a Vincent van Gogh who is less of an outsider and more surprisingly updated on the cultural debate of his time: a passionate reader and collector of prints, as well as an attentive observer of the most current artistic trends. In his letters we find the most vivid testimony in one line: "Books, reality and art are one and the same thing for me".