More on van Gogh

Adam Gopnik has a piece in the January 4 New Yorker about new van Gogh scholarship (you must register at the site for the full article). Last spring I mentioned this book, by German scholars Hans Kaufmann and Rita Wildegans. The authors argue that Paul Gauguin may have sliced off van Gogh's ear--that perhaps the famous wound was not self-inflicted after all.

Gopnik describes van Gogh's quest, ultimately futile, for an artistic community in the town of Arles. And he makes a compelling observation about the role artists play for the rest of us:

"We gawk and stare as the painters slice off their ears and down the booze and act like clowns. But we rely on them to make up for our own timidity, on their courage to dignify our caution . . . . [We spectators] all make our wagers, and the cumulative lottery builds museums and lecture halls and revisionist biographies. But the artist does more. He bets his life."