Deciphering Warhol and Van Gogh

The New Yorker recently ran two stellar pieces on legendary artists (summarized nicely at The ArtBlog), one by Adam Gopnik about Vincent van Gogh and his severed ear and the other from Louis Menand concerning Andy Warhol's life and work. They're engrossing articles, with revealing facts and analyses on these artists, which is surprising, given that these are two of the most studied and dissected artists of all time.

We highly recommend both essays, with a chaser of the following books from last year, Mystery of The Night Café: Hidden Key to the Spirituality of Vincent van Gogh and Materializing Queer Desire: Oscar Wilde to Andy Warhol for additional perspectives and critical analyses.

Have you read these essays and/or books? If so, what are your opinions?

Author explores Van Gogh's spiritual journey

ROROTOKO's cover interview for today is with SUNY Press author Cliff Edwards and focuses on his new book, The Mystery of The Night Café, which explores the spiritual vision of Van Gogh’s painting The Night Café. Here's a snippet:

I hope readers will treat it as a mystery to be solved, and will evaluate each of the clues I find and present. Here we have one of the few paintings Van Gogh both signed and titled, a painting he described as “one of my only works with deep meaning.” The mystery is how one painting inside a café for poor workers and misfits can serve as a key to the artist’s spiritual journey.

Edwards provides a fascinating look into his approach to writing this book, which will surely whet your appetite to read the book and solve the mystery of The Night Café yourself.