Vincent van GoghPaul Gauguin's Armchair © Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
A few days before the opening of a van Gogh exhibition in Paris in 1947, gallery owner Pierre Loeb suggested that Antonin Artaud (1896-1948) write about the painter. Challenging the thesis of alienation, Artaud was determined to show how van Gogh’s exceptional lucidity made lesser minds uncomfortable.
Wishing to prevent him from uttering certain "intolerable truths", those who were disturbed by his painting drove him to suicide.
Based on the categories and the unusual designations put forward by Artaud in
Van Gogh, the Man Suicided by Society, , the exhibition will comprise some thirty paintings, a selection of van Gogh's drawings and letters, together with graphic works by the poet-illustrator.
General Curator
Guy Cogeval, director, Musée d'Orsay and Musée de l'Orangerie
Curator
Isabelle Cahn, chief curator, Musée d'Orsay