Van Gogh and the construction of genius: narration as the final brushstroke of the work.

It's not skill that defines the artist, nor is it his manual ability. Perhaps this is
A controversial opinion, but it's equally true. Talent contributes, but it's a factor.
only partial of a possible success from a social and economic point of view.
There are many people who are good at painting and sculpting, some better than others, but not
all these people can be defined as masters of art. The first step from
The journey from craftsman to artist begins with manual skill, ideas, concepts, and innovation.
more than this, however, the consecration of a product of human ingenuity as a work of art
It depends on the audience and the almost universal recognition that an object is connoted
from certain aesthetic and conceptual characteristics that make it art. The fact is that
this recognition must be conveyed, the story must be told because
otherwise it cannot work. There are several figures who can therefore communicate and
convey the message of the work, the artist himself, the critic, the gallery owner, the patron. It is rare
whether it is a bottom-up approach, where the general public is involved from the very beginning
creating a platform large enough to generate recognition, most of the time it is a matter of
a top-down approach, where recognized figures in the field create a narrative that
can accompany the artist in whom they place their trust. More this narrative
it works, the more it generates mystery, desire or anger; the more people can identify with it
in his works or in his concepts, the more an echo is created that expands. It starts at one point, but
It doesn't stay there: it spreads, bounces around, and imprints itself in the memory. This is partly why
so, sometimes, an artist becomes famous during his lifetime, also thanks to his ability to
self-promotion; other times, however, his biography is reread and adapted post mortem,
to build a character with an aura capable of reaching a
widespread recognition. And no, it's not true that the value of a work increases
economically when an artist disappears. Unfortunately, it is a question that, for those who ask
as an intermediary, is often repeated when talking about contemporary artists.
the truth is that it is marketing, research and bibliographic narration that build the artist; and
if the driving force that sustains a painter dies with him, however much it may be
talented state, risks quickly falling into oblivion. Even when this does not happen, his
prices tend to drop significantly: only through targeted actions can this trend be reversed
be reversed. There are no instruction manuals and no absolute certainties on how to create a
artist, but certainly there are stories to be retraced that make us understand that we must find
the key to proposing the artist to the general public. We all know how the
Mona Lisa gained new importance when it was stolen, which Dalí presented
with the anteater to generate curiosity and that Haring has become an icon of the community
LGBTQIA+ and the face of HIV research. However, here we would like to retrace one of the
The most striking examples of post-mortem artistic valorization are that of Vincent van Gogh.
Today we all know the face of Van Gogh, we find him and his works on T-Shirts,
bags, gadgets of all kinds and even Lego has dedicated sets to him. These are
one of the most recognized, reproduced, requested and iconic artists globally, and yet, in
life, he was unsuccessful. He committed suicide: poor, dissatisfied and subjugated by
mental disorders. Of the hundreds of paintings he painted in the short span of about ten years,
We are certain of a single sale, that of The Red Vineyard of Arles. The work was
purchased in 1890 by Anna Bloch, Belgian collector and artist, who paid 400
francs, about $2,000 today, unlike the million-dollar figures that are requested today for the
his paintings. The first recognition of van Gogh's work came a few years after his
The key figure in his success was Johanna Bonger, his brother's widow. Theo died
only six months after Vincent, and so Johanna was left alone to raise their son. It was she who
to inherit all the painter's paintings, drawings and letters. In those years he began to read the
letters between the two brothers, initially to find her husband, and through him she learns to
love Vincent too. She feels the responsibility to honor her husband and brother as if
had a mission to accomplish, to honor the boundless love Theo felt for the
brother (just consider that their son also took the name Vincent). He decides not to
sell off, he doesn't want to get rid of the works and decides to try to implement the
strategy developed in van Gogh's letters: exhibit as much as possible, sell
as much as it takes to finance other exhibitions, do not waste the work. In the artist's biography
signed by her tells how she was initially forced to face "the contempt, the doors
closed, the forest of "no" towards an artist considered at times too modern, at times
just crazy. He moves from France to Holland, where with the help of his father
he bought a house in Bussum, bringing with him about 200 works, creating a space
exhibition space that today we could define as a showroom, a private space accessible to
friends and curious people. He begins to send a copious number of letters and to propose the works to
consecrated figures of the world of collectors, trying to organize the first exhibitions. With
art critics, on the other hand, do not proceed in a blanket manner, but create targeted and intense relationships with the
most recognized figures. He realizes that, to achieve the greatest economic success, he must
to combine the work of the merchants with the ability of the critics to fictionalize the life and works of the
deceased brother-in-law. The culmination of this work came when, in 1905, he invested his own
money to be able to exhibit over 400 works at the Stedelijk Museum. The exhibition is met with a
widespread success, with over two thousand visitors in two months, which triggers a mechanism
which makes the work known to the general public, going beyond just professionals
sector. In 1914 the Letters were also published in the form of a literary novel,
support the dissemination of the story of the artist's life, where they become a source
primary. These letters also struck one of the greatest collectors of the time,
Helene Kröller-Müller, and her contribution will become fundamental for the recognition
global. Due to historical conjuncture, the expressionist currents were born in the same period
in the surrounding areas, helping even more to unlock acceptance and appreciation
of the vivacity of the sign and of the colour; and the awareness of the little success that they have
Gogh had in life further fueled the myth that came to surround him.
This example makes us understand how even the greatest artistic talent becomes truly
such only when its history and its work are recognized, studied,
communicated and disseminated, through narrative and marketing strategies capable of giving the
right weight to the quality of the work, even when it anticipates the aesthetic canons of its own
era. It's not enough to be good if no one sees you; and perhaps, if it hadn't been for people
like Johanna, the memory of a genius like Vincent Van Gogh would also have been lost
over time.