Vincent
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
The turbulent life of Vincent van Gogh continues to serve as a source of inspiration for many people. In this graphic novel, artist and writer Barbara Stok takes the reader on a journey to the brief and intense period of time that the painter spent in the south of France.
Vincent dreams of setting up an artists' house in Arles for himself and his friends. However, his attacks of mental illness confuse and disorient him, culminating in the notorious incident with his ear and leaving his dreams shattered. Throughout all of this, Vincent's brother Theo stands by him, offering constant and unconditional support.
Van Gogh was passionate about his art. His ideas about succes, setbacks and how to create a meaningful life provide an interesting counterpoint to our age of commercialism. Stok has succeeded in turning the experiences of this 19th-century artist into a story that is relevant to our own times.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Using pop art to describe fine painting, Stok's offbeat comics biography of Vincent van Gogh follows the Dutch-born painter from his time in Arles, France, to his death. Stok doesn't try to reproduce van Gogh's visuals; instead, she uses heavy lines, solid colors, and minimal background details to focus attention on characters and history. When she breaks away from this pattern in jagged panel lines showing van Gogh's slipping sanity, or the brilliance of his paintings exploding behind him it's emotionally charged and made all the more immediate by the iconography. Stok uses bright nonprimaries and solid background pastels for the figures and action. There's great beauty, and not just in van Gogh's madness and passion: sections of his letters to and from his brother Theo are touching. This inventive art biography eschews the usual visual clich s and brings its subject into a sharp and sympathetic focus.
