I turn the page that features Van Gogh’s Chair, and see quite a different chair painted, Gauguin’s Chair.
Just having a bit of a browse of my Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets collection this afternoon. The one titled “Books and Libraries” catches my eye and I think that’s a good read with a cup of tea, some leftover coffee cake from Mother’s Day and the noise of birds out in the cool rain in the background.
I open to a random poem - “Sunday” by Yi Sha - I read:
SUNDAY
- by Yi Sha (translated by Simon Patton)
in an art book
I came across
two paintings by Van Gogh
they hadn't been mounted on banknotes
these two celebrated works
were unremarkable paintings
one was called Gaugin's Chair
the other
Van Gogh's Chair
although I didn't go so far
as to buy the book
I was so moved by what I saw
that I was like
'a chariot driven south
to get north'
and I caught the wrong trolley bus
home
“Clever idiom, must reference that in the future”, I think. What about those chairs, Van Gogh’s paintings can be emotional, but chairs?
I scan the spines of my art exhibit books - little remembrances from cultural and artistic curations that have left an impression on me after attending. Find the exhibit book from the 2016 “Van Gogh’s Bedrooms” exhibit. Think to myself, “there have to be chairs in that one!”
Sure enough, both are featured, along with some anecdotal quotes from Van Gogh’s own letters.
“I’m beginning more and more to look for a simple technique that perhaps isn’t impressionist. I’d like to paint in such a way that if it comes to it, everyone who has eyes could understand it.”
- Van Gogh, Aug. 21, 1888, “Letters”
“Gauguin, that curious artist, that stranger…I tried to paint ‘his empty place'.’ It is a study of his armchair of dark, red-brown wood, the seat of greenish straw, and in the absent person’s place a lighted candlestick and some modern novels.” - Van Gogh, Feb. 9/10, 1880, “Letters”
The contrast of the modest objects and chair in one painting to the colorful decorative chair with a candle in place of a man in the other, raises a contemplative emotion in my heart.
I pause, distracted by the lingering narrative of “self” in a room. Was this the distraction that drove “the chariot south to go north”, like in the poem? I reflect on Van Gogh’s words:
“I’d like to paint in such a way that if it comes to it, everyone who has eyes could understand it.”
I pause again.
I smile at the pure serendipity of my afternoon browsing. Like the person in the poem, I happened to pick up a book - in my case an Everyman poetry collection - to find, by chance, this poet’s everyman reflection - of an artist concerned with the everyman’s ability to understand his art - who’s art I happen to have in another book on my shelves to be appreciated by “an everyman”, me!
The reward from browsing!!!
Hope you’ve enjoyed this short interlude of poetry and art in your day.
I whole-heartedly encourage the casual browsing of your own shelves on a rainy day - you never know what may come of it.
I’d love to hear if you’ve ever had a similarly satisfying moment as a result of browsing, and what new thoughts and finds resulted!
Brittany