I went to the Van Gogh bash at the Royal Academy of Arts last week. There’s so much else going on at the moment I arrived sort of testy, especially when it turned out there had been a power cut for 4 hours and they were only just thinking of opening when I arrived. My pre-paid 3pm ticket may have only cost me about £4 (plus booking fees – how ridiculous!) but the place was unpleasantly packed. It was a disappointment, especially after my rock 'n' roll tour of Amsterdam with The Arrow where rather than explore the red light district I excused myself and visited the Reich Museum and the Van Gogh Museum. My colleagues kindly decided to ignore this behaviour and, I think, in spite of my Rock Credentials put it down to age!
So, to this exhibition. It confirmed what I’ve always thought and admired about Van Gogh. He was a bloke like us who had a number of careers but when he decided he wanted to paint, he just went for it. He wasn’t very good when he started, but he had heroes, people he looked up to and he just decided he was going to try to be a painter – an artist – and his big ambition in the early days was just to try and make a living. He had his equivalent of the Arts Council as well, his younger brother Theo, whose financial contribution allowed Vincent to stick at it. And although tragically Vincent died without any real recognition, you have to say the boy done good. Packing out – and I mean packing – the Royal Academy of Arts.
This says it all really, about being an artist. (Although I didn't photo the letter sketch.)
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