Van Gogh and Gauguin: Electric Arguments and Utopian Dreams

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant Exploration in Psychoanalysis of Culture
Review: Bradley Collins first suggested in his book on Leonardo da Vinci that psychoanalysis had great untapped potential in its application to the art history and the analysis of individual artworks. In his second book, Van Gogh and Gauguin, Electric Arguments and Utopian Dreams, Collins certainly makes good on his promise. Virtually every sentence in this book is a bullet. Exceptionally readable and zestful, Bradley Collins never fails to move the reader along merrily during this delightful tour de force. The section on Van Gogh leads off and with a wealth of primary material, letters, early sketches, notes and even recollections by contemporaries and other artists, Collins nails his powerful points with clarity and conviction. Van Gogh's conflicts are clearly linked to earlier infantile repressed syndromes which are then in turn brought into connection with his artworks. Collins is never dogmatic. He gives the reader freedom to doubt and hold back. The Gauguin section has less of an overwhelming primary material avalanche because we lack the enormous correspondence. Collins disarmingly admits this problem and comfortably proceeds within the limitations of the evidence. At all times, Collins wide ranging erudition in art history shines. His polished prose never has the feel of jargon yet he sent me to the dictionary a number of times and he will stretch the reader frequently. The choice of illustrations is superb and extremely helpful in supporting not only Collins' closely reasoned Freudian position but in enveloping the reader in this wonderful aesthetic journey. Collins use of footnotes is judicious and illuminating. One example: In one footnote Collins notes that at the time of Van Gogh's ear mutilation there was a concurrent rage among Japanese prostitutes for amputation and gift of a fingertip to keep the wandering hearts of a wavering client, and since Van Gogh like many of the avant garde artists of his day was a fanatic admirer of Japanese culture it is quite possible that he knew of this bizarre masochist practice when he cut his ear. Collins has mastered the art of putting more in his footnotes than many of his contemporary authors manage to put in their entire books.
This is a must read for anyone interested in art history, psychoanalysis or general cultural debate. One can only hope that Collins will continue to write on the topic of psychoanalysis and art history, which although it is not an especially popular topic, it is a field in which Bradley Collins may now be justly considered perhaps America's leading specialist. In my opinion, there were signs of genius on every page of Van Gogh and Gauguin, Electric Arguments and Utopian Dreams. Bravo to Collins. A book of such quality is only encountered perhaps once a decade. It is a real gem.