Book, Van Gogh: salvation through painting[LS]

Rodrigo Naves' critical work is in permanent tension between the notions of form and history. His book A Forma Difficult, originally released in 1996, is a landmark in the interpretation of Brazilian art. Based on detailed readings of the works of Guignard, Volpi, Debret and Amilcar de Castro, Rodrigo discusses the difficulty of emancipating the modern form in Brazilian art. In his essays, the analysis of the specific materiality of each work is always the starting point. It's no different in this powerful interpretation of Van Gogh's work. Attentive to the expressive nature of the Dutch artist's iconic canvases, Rodrigo seeks to understand them in light of the idea of ​​salvation, deeply rooted in the painter's Protestant background (his father was a Calvinist pastor and he himself was an assistant pastor). The critical consequences of the argument are numerous — and contribute to a more nuanced image of the artist's trajectory, hostage to countless stereotypes associated with genius and madness. The Van Gogh that emerges from these pages is not just an unstable and tormented genius, but an artist aware of the smallest aspects of his craft, to which he saw himself linked as to a religious predestination. The freedom of references typical of the most gifted essayists, the rigor of the formal analysis — owing to demanding aesthetic readings —, the clarity of the style, the originality of the points of view, the assertiveness of the opinions, the spirit of provocation, all these predicates of Rodrigo Naves' influential work is present in this essay. As in the Dutch painter's paintings, light leaks from the pages of this book. And it helps us see the enigmas of the outside world more clearly.