The deep friendship behind Van Gogh's 26 portraits of one family
BOSTON — 'Van Gogh: The Roulin Family Portraits' at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts is an exhibition about human rapport. A sort of boutique blockbuster — if such a thing is possible — it is devoted to Vincent van Gogh's portraits of a single family. I came out of it with a full heart not so much warmed as wobbly and exposed, like a freshly shucked oyster.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CBS News
30-05-2025
- CBS News
Boston artist John Wilson's work now the subject of Museum of Fine Arts exhibit celebrating humanity
A late Boston artist that got his start in the Roxbury neighborhood now has his work gracing the walls of the Museum of Fine Arts as part of a new exhibition. Welcome to Roxbury: the geographic center of the city, the heart of Black Boston, and the birthplace of artist John Wilson. "His life came out of that community very deeply, and it produced this—at least for me—this magnificent representation of human beings," said Roy Wilson, John's son. Importance of family John Wilson was born in 1922, to immigrants from British Guyana. Although his career took him to many places, Including Europe and Mexico, family was always important to him. He went on to marry his wife Julie and they had three kids: Erica, Rebecca and Roy. Roy Wilson invited WBZ-TV into his childhood home in Brookline. "I just have this vision of him doing anything to protect us. And I always knew that about him - that he'd be there in the end for you - whatever it took," said Wilson. John Wilson passed away in 2015 at the age of 92, but the memories that Wilson made with his father are still very much alive. "Well - one thing is - he was upstairs working a lot. When I went to the show, it was kind of impressive… seeing all the stuff that he had been working on in his studio for so many years—to see it all in one place!" said Wilson. New MFA exhibit That place? The walls of The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. One hundred and ten of his works grace the walls; paintings, prints, drawings, sculptures and illustrated books—all on display in the exhibition "Witnessing Humanity: The Art of John Wilson." "The self-portrait was an incredibly important part of John Wilson's work and throughout his six-decade career, so much of his work is focused around portraits of himself, his family, and his friends," said co-curator Edward Saywell. "And a lot of that has to do with his reclaiming, the dignity and the gravitas of the portrait for Black Americans." Saywell, one of the four co-curators of the John Wilson exhibit, told WBZ-TV that as an art student, Wilson never got to see himself in art history books or exhibitions. "And when he did see representations of Black Americans, all too often he described them as caricature-like or dehumanized. And one of the threads that you see throughout the entire exhibition is incredible humanity and empathy that he imbues in all his portraits—whether it's a portrait of himself or a portrait of a family member or a friend," Saywell explained. John Wilson spent more than six decades creating artwork that challenged viewers to not just see. "The works speak to, not only key political and civil rights moments over those six decades, but they speak to what life was like in Roxbury growing up in the 1940s," Saywell said. Works displayed in Roxbury Long before Wilson's works were in the MFA, they were on display in the neighborhood that helped shape him. One of those works sits on the campus of Roxbury Community College, called: "Father and Child Reading." A 7-foot tall bronze sculpture that honors the fond memories John Wilson had of his father reading to him. "Father and Child Reading," a sculpture by John Wilson. CBS Boston "I know that he was very dedicated to the idea of being a father, in acculture, that in some ways, made it difficult to be an upstanding man," said Wilson. The other work, a very well-known piece called "The Eternal Presence", more affectionately known as "The Big Head." The monument, described by the artist himself as, "an image of universal dignity." "For him, putting it in Roxbury was as important as the piece itself. And attaching it to the ground, no pedestal, in his home community—was as important as anything else about the piece. And the fact that people come once a year to polish it and to refinish it, was completely moving to the man. It was the highest compliment he could imagine being paid," said Saywell. That piece sits on the campus of the museum of The National Center of Afro-American Arts. "My sincerest hope is that any visitor is going to see an extraordinary Boston artist who should be on the national stage and are going to come away, hopefully seeing work that speaks to them in one way or another," Saywell shared. "That we are as magical, as strong, as thoughtful, as human, as any other people on the planet," Wilson said when asked about what he wants visitors to feel leaving his father's exhibit. John Wilson's impact is also still felt by students and staff alike at Boston University, where his inspiration and instruction as a professor continues to reverberate. The exhibition at The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston will be on display through June 22 – and then it will travel to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in September.
Hypebeast
28-05-2025
- Hypebeast
A BATHING APE® 攜手梵谷博物館推出全新聯名系列
本文看點 A BATHING APE®與梵谷博物館 Van Gogh Museum攜手推出全新聯名系列，將精緻藝術帶入街頭時尚，以充滿活力的方式向傳奇畫家 Vincent Van Gogh 的生平與作品致敬。 系列融合 BAPE 的獨特美學與 Van Gogh 的傳奇藝術，將包括《Self-Portrait in a Gray Felt Hat》（1887）、《Blooming Plum Orchard》（1887）、《Yellow House》（1888）、《Sunflowers》（1889）、《Blooming Almonds》（1890）及《Wheat Field with Crows》（1890）等經典作品，無縫融入 BAPE 的標誌性設計。 APE HEAD 圖案化為畫布，打造按年代排序的六款 T-Shirt，呈現上述作品。經典的 Shark Hoodie 融入 Van Gogh 的藝術元素，並推出全新 OIL PAINTING CAMO 迷彩圖案，將其筆觸轉化為 BAPE 標誌性迷彩。此外系列還納入 Van Gogh 寫給弟弟 Theo 的書信摘錄，增添個人化與深層情感。 雙方共帶來長短袖 T-Shirt、圓領毛衣及 Shark Full Zip Hoodie，預計在 5 月 31 日線上發售，有興趣的讀者不妨多加留意。 >Gentle Monster 攜手 Bratz 推出全新 Pocket Collection 聯名系列 >Bryce James 配戴價值 $25 萬美元粉紅金材質 Cartier Crash Skeleton 稀有錶款
Hypebeast
27-05-2025
- Hypebeast
Frist Art Museum Unpacks the Fabric of American Identity in New Quilt Show
Summary The humble quilt has long been a major player in folk art museums around the country, though in recent years it's made its way into the more mainstream spotlight. Following this path,Fabric of a Nation: American Quilt Stories, a forthcoming exhibition at Nashville's Frist Art Museum, will present a nearly 50-piece quilt and coverlet showcase hailing from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, each its own immaculate patchwork of the personal and the political. Spanning more than 300 years of U.S. history, the exhibit traces quilting's evolution and threads this timeless art form into the broader story of American identity, stitch by stitch. From 18th-century heirlooms to works made as recently as 2021, the exhibition celebrates stories behind these textile relics alongside the medium's unsung heroes and the voices too often left out of traditional art histories. 'Today, quilters have expanded the medium to encompass a wide range of techniques, materials and imagery,' says senior curator Katie Delmez. Once just a means of warmth, utility and craft, in the mid-19th century, quilting flourished into an art form of its own as makers began to identify more with textile art. Now a powerful form of artistic and cultural expression, contemporary quiltmakers from all walks of life turn the the medium to reckon with today's ideas and issues, such as racism and gun violence to immigration and Indigenous sovereignty. In this space, fabric becomes a soft but unflinching testimony to the complex visual, cultural and racial fabric of American life, and the myriad of stories that emerge. Head to the Frist'swebsitefor more information. Frist Art Museum919 Broadway,Nashville, TN 37203
