Exploring Pure Abstraction in Van Gogh's A Society and its Influence on Musée d'Orsay

This article explores the pure abstraction in Van Gogh's A Society and its influence on Musée d'Orsay. It discusses the autonomy of color, listening to colors, and the insignificance of theme. The thematic connection between the two pieces is also explored.

HUMANITIES 303 WEEK 6

Reflection
Picasso once said that he had never painted what he saw but always painted what he felt.
After having the initial glance on Van Gogh The starry night, the essence of this painting
seem to resonate with that proclamation of Picasso. I do music and probably that is why the
painting came to me as a shock of recognition. For instance, the song named Carnival of
Rust, sung by a band named Poets of Fall, I find, embeds the essence of this painting. In the
lyrics of the particular song, the vocalist said ...true colours will bleed. I find this painting of
Van Gogh as the embodiment of what the phrase craved to convey.
Lauded scholars and art critics have tried to relate with the notions of Resurrection, Garden of
Eden, Judgement day etc but I hesitate to endorse those characterization. The works of Van
Gogh has been globally acknowledged as the exploration of pure abstraction and that is why I
find it farcical to characterize the theme of this painting with rational terms. Being a
musician, what strikes me about Van Gogh is his ability to listen to the cry of the colours. His
apparently disordered and anarchic compositions can be considered as analogous to what we
meant by cacophony in music. However, instead of emphasising on the chaos of his
compositions, I would prefer to acknowledge them for the fact that the artist has endeavoured
to transcend the thematic barrier of every colour simply by endowing each colour with
autonomy. It depicts the view from the east-facing window of his asylum room at Saint-
Rémy-de-Provence, just before sunrise and enchantment of colour, with the addition of an
idealized village.
Introduction
 Painting as inspiration
 Exploring relations with my workplace
 Formation of individual art piece
The painting that I have chosen is A Society by Van Gogh and explored the pure abstraction
of the painter. After that, I have formed my own painting relying on one of the aspects of the
paintings of Van Gogh. Afterwards, I have explored the thematic connection between my
painting and Van Gogh.

Explanation of my inspiration piece
 Pure Abstraction
 Insignificance of theme
 Autonomy of colour
 Listening to colours
 Colour cacophony
Most of the art scholars have recognized the paintings of Van Gogh as the exponents of the
art tradition of pure abstraction. My inspiration piece is titled as A Society and cumulatively
considered as the apex of his career after the advent of World War I. Several other lauded art
critics have characterized the painting style of Van Gogh as synesthetic. In the most of the
cases, the composition of colours and the apparent appearance of those colours happen to
become the major point of discussion. In this regard, several accounts on his artistic
masterpieces have suggested the fact that, it is evident from his perceptions of rooftops and
the edifices of Kremlin that Van Gogh has been able to listen to the sounds embedded within
the colour. Several art critics have endorsed this apparently paradoxical statement as most of
them felt that the artistic endeavour of Van Gogh is to express the cries and screams of the
colours. Apart from that, Van Gogh is one of those rare painters who have been able to
recreate themes like Judgement day, Resurrection etc simply by these cumulative screens
composed of splotches of colour. The style of A Society have lured me since it bears a direct
relationship with the profession I belong to; music. Van Gogh’s canvasses remind me of
another painter named Jackson Pollock who is also as cacophonic as Van Gogh is.
Description of my piece

 The supremacy of colours
 Single Colours
 Yearning embedded on the colours
 Colours
I have named my piece Musée d'Orsay that, apart from Van Gogh, is also influenced by a
painter contemporary to Van Gogh; Kazimir Malevich. It apparently appears very simple to
perceive and draw but I wish to illustrate it as an emblem of avant-garde art tradition, which
is still prevalent at that time. Though several art critics and other artistic scholars have
considered these artists to lay on two opposite poles, what I feel that, exploring several
aspects, it is evident they can be connected.
The inspiration that I get from the painting of Van Gogh is the fact that Van Gogh is one of
those rare artists who have endeavoured to emancipate the notion of painting from thematic
barriers. Furthermore, he is one of those rare people who have endeavoured to let the colours
express their inner sobbing. Thus, in short, Van Gogh is one of the pioneers who proclaim the
supremacy of the colours while declaring the triviality of themes in painting. Coincidentally,
the movement that Malevich is pioneer of is known as suprematism.
In a conclusive tone, through my piece I have tried to extend the project of Van Gogh to its
next step and that is why I simply drawn a red square (coincidentally Red Square is the name
of one of the famous paintings drawn by Kazimir Malevich).

Thematic connection between two pieces
 Themes are trivial
 Dialectics as thematic connection
Though it has been feebly discussed in the previous section, it can be illustrated again that
what I have been able to decipher from the paintings of Van Gogh that, instead of
emphasizing on the themes, Van Gogh attempts to endow the colours of his painting with an
immense autonomy. In my piece, I have attempted to usher this notion of autonomy towards
supremacy. Driven by this desire, I have attempted to portray just a block where the only
colour is red. However, several counter arguments can be quoted over here. For instance, it is
evident from the paintings of Van Gogh that instead of depth, he has emphasized on the
periphery of ideas. Thus, it is farcical to attempt to find ant singular theme in his paintings
rather than that his paintings seems to embed multiple themes. Thus, my piece can be
considered as a mild resonation of one of those many themes. In a conclusive tone, it can be
said that the nature of relationship, which is prevalent between my paintings and paintings of
Van Gogh, is dialectical.

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