Turbulence

[Bartc]

Don't know if this has been posted before.
Van Gogh & physics

Van Gogh continues to fascinate not just art enthusiasts, but psychology minded pros and now physicists.

When I taught graduate school courses in Abnormal Psych, the first concept that would come up in the texts was "normality". Often they would depict some of VG's paintings as examples of pathology, one commonly used text even boasting a VG painting on its cover. But I always contrasted that textual proposition with his actual letters about the same pieces to his brother, Theo, where he was quite lucid and had good artistic reason for his choices.

My own clinical experience working with people experiencing hallucinations and illusions (drug induced or psychotic) showed me that there were indeed characteristic common visual patterns. So who is right about VG? Your guess is as good as mine, and I just wish he were around to interview!

 

[Enyaw]

Interesting article. Interesting artist.

 

[stlukesguild]

From what I have read about Van Gogh I got the feeling that he made most of his paintings during his more lucid periods.

I've come on theories that the distortions in El Greco's paintings were caused by an astigmatism and the increased use of yellow in Van Gogh by digitalis. Neither made sense to me. If El Greco was seeing bodies elongated and Van Gogh was perceiving a heightened degree of yellow wouldn't they shorten the bodies and lessen the yellow to compensate?

 

[brianvds]

From what I have read about Van Gogh I got the feeling that he made most of his paintings during his more lucid periods.

I've come on theories that the distortions in El Greco's paintings were caused by an astigmatism and the increased use of yellow in Van Gogh by digitalis. Neither made sense to me. If El Greco was seeing bodies elongated and Van Gogh was perceiving a heightened degree of yellow wouldn't they shorten the bodies and lessen the yellow to compensate?

I wonder how these folks explain the fauvists...

 

[john]

I can confirm through first hand experience that LSD and Psilocybin both cause visual distortions similar to Van Gogh's paintings.
Since these drugs cause a sort of psychosis it's seems possible that Van Gogh's psychosis may have caused the same thing. It makes things seem to shimmer and vibrate within geometric patterns.

Also, back then the Rye crop could get an ergot fungus which formed a natural LSD. I wonder if consuming this may have been a factor. A poor person like Van Gogh may have had to eat the cheap breads with this fungus.

 

[Bartc]

I can confirm through first hand experience that LSD and Psilocybin both cause visual distortions similar to Van Gogh's paintings.
Since these drugs cause a sort of psychosis it's seems possible that Van Gogh's psychosis may have caused the same thing. It makes things seem to shimmer and vibrate within geometric patterns.

Also, back then the Rye crop could get an ergot fungus which formed a natural LSD. I wonder if consuming this may have been a factor. A poor person like Van Gogh may have had to eat the cheap breads with this fungus.

John, as both an artist and a therapist I have direct experience with folks using both lab and natural hallucinogenics, as well as those suffering from psychoses. What you suggest about VG is certainly possible, but I think it unlikely. From my direct observation the characteristic hallucinations experienced in psychoses do not look like VG's distortions, many of which were deliberate attempts at expression and experimentation.

 

[john]

John, as both an artist and a therapist I have direct experience with folks using both lab and natural hallucinogenics, as well as those suffering from psychoses. What you suggest about VG is certainly possible, but I think it unlikely. From my direct observation the characteristic hallucinations experienced in psychoses do not look like VG's distortions, many of which were deliberate attempts at expression and experimentation.

Yeah I agree. I don't think drugs or natural psychosis is needed to explain what he did. He probably just thought it looked nice.