I NOSTRI INCONTRI

[genziana]

"PROMETEO" reading di e con Alessandro PREZIOSI

produzione : KHORA.teatro; live set di Paky Di Maio

20 luglio '17 Castello di Maniace 21:00 p.zza d'Armi








nel quadro degli Eventi programmati per celebrare i

2750 anni dalla Fondazione della Città di SIRACUSA

con il Patrocinio di:
- Ass.to Turismo Sport Spettacolo Regione Siciliana
- Comune di Siracusa
- Siracusa2750

a cura di: Comunità Euro-Afro-Asiatica del Turismo




Le prevendite saranno disponibili all'Info Point/Biglietteria al Palazzo del Governo di Siracusa in via Roma, aperta dalle 10.30-13.30/16.30-23.30


Box-Office Sicilia circuito www.ctbox.it/C24/2388/Content.aspx/Eventi/Teatro/Alessandro_Preziosi_in_Prometeo_20_07_2017

BOXOL Sicilia https://www.boxol.it/it/event/alessandro-preziosi-in-prometeo-piazza-darmi-castello-maniace-siracusa/211184

Sarà ALESSANDRO PREZIOSI in “PROMETEO”, nel percorso drammaturgico del recital, con citazioni di Simon Weil, Goethe e Byron, a fornirci altre chiavi di lettura della tragedia attribuita ad Eschilo. In una contestualizzazione storica diviene il simbolo stesso della condizione esistenziale umana, della sfida alla legge divina, ma è anche metafora del pensiero libero, svincolato dal mito e dalle false e bugiarde mitologie.








Estate Teatrale 2017 - TUB : Teatri Uniti di Basilicata

"PROMETEO" ore 21:00 appuntamenti in programma:

mercoledì 26 luglio - MATERA
- Terrazzo Palazzo Lanfranchi;

giovedì 27 luglio - VAGLIO Basilicata (PZ)
- MEFITIS - Scavi Archeologici Rossano;

venerdì 28 luglio - GRUMENTO Nova (PZ)
- Anfiteatro Grumentum



In caso di pioggia l’organizzazione ha previsto l’eventuale trasferimento di tutti gli spettacoli in spazi teatrali al coperto che saranno preventivamente comunicati: MATERA Teatri Uniti di Basilicata via don Minzoni, 38 – Tel 0835.337220

POTENZA Info&Tickets corso XVIII agosto, 2 – Tel 0971. 274704 - http://teatriunitidibasilicata.com/spettacoli/prometeo-2-2/

Anche la Stagione teatrale Estate 2017 aderisce all’iniziativa dedicata a promuovere la cultura “18app”, a cura del MiBACT e
della Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri, destinata ai ragazzi che hanno compiuto 18 anni nel 2016 e al progetto Carta Docente.


_________________

[genziana]

www.tg2.rai.it/dl/RaiTV/programmi/media/ContentItem-4bd4778d-2666-4bf5-b1ac-f1038c8131bd-tg2.html


Spoleto60: intensa prova d'attore per Alessandro Preziosi protagonista di

Van Gogh. L'odore assordante del bianco; RAI Tg2 intervista e recensione

''VAN GOGH. L'ODORE ASSORDANTE DEL BIANCO''

di Stefano Massini - per la regia di Alessandro Maggi

TOUR TEATRALE 2018 :prime date dalla prossima Stagione

dal 24 al 28 gennaio - VENEZIA MESTRE, Teatro TONIOLO
. Settore Cultura del Comune di Venezia
in collaborazione con il Circuito Teatrale Regionale ArtVen


dal 6 al 11 febbraio 2018 - FIRENZE, Teatro della PERGOLA
. TEATRO DELLA TOSCANA, Teatro Nazionale


dal 13 febbraio al 4 marzo 2018 - ROMA, Teatro ELISEO


dal 9 all'11 marzo 2018 - BOLOGNA, Teatro DUSE


dal 15 al 18 marzo 2018 - SALERNO, Teatro Municipale VERDI
. Teatro Pubblico Campano


dal 20 al 25 marzo 2018 - NAPOLI, Teatro MERCADANTE
. TEATRO STABILE DI NAPOLI, Teatro Nazionale

_________________

[alessina 91]

Non so se sia lo spazio giusto perché non vorrei confondere i topic degli argomenti ma, se posso, vorrei fare i complimenti ad Alessandro per il nuovo lavoro che sta portando in scena.
Sono riuscita a farglieli di persona in modo fugace ( e va bene cosi) ma mi piacerebbe leggesse che chi è andato a vedere lo spettacolo ne abbia apprezzato il contenuto. So che apprezza chi lo segue e partecipa ai suoi lavori ed è gratificante per tutti però credo che con tutti non abbia modo di confrontarsi o di parlare a voce.
Ebbene io ho avuto il privilegio o la fortuna di poter assistere ad una delle serate estive di questa anteprima teatrale e posso dire di esserne rimasta molto soddisfatta. Il testo non è semplice e la vicenda è molto pesante a livello psicologico pero' a differenza di quanto mi immaginassi si riesce a comprendere tutto molto bene e con straordinaria efficacia.
Non so se la compagnia si è attenuta fedelmente al testo di Massini poiché ammetto, con ignoranza, di non conoscerlo.
Le volte precedenti c'era la possibilità di documentarsi e di provare a vedere o a sapere qualcosa in più..questa volta, almeno per me, non è stato possibile. Sono andata quindi a scatola chiusa senza sapere cosa aspettarmi e giocandomi praticamente tutto lì.
Personalmente non sono rimasta delusa perché interpretare un artista e per giunta rinchiuso in manicomio non è semplice e si fa una fatica micidiale. Alessandro è molto bravo perché riesce fin da subito a far capire il dramma che vive il suo personaggio e recita in maniera fluida senza forzature o sbavature. Il momento dei dialoghi è quello che considero migliore perché sono i momenti in cui emerge l'uomo con la sua fragilità e con il suo dramma interiore aldilà dell'artista e di quelli che sono i suoi rimpianti.
Mi trovo d'accordo con le recensioni che ho letto. Alessandro occupa la scena per quasi due ore e soffre, fisicamente soffre con il suo personaggio.
A me personalmente è piaciuta sopratutto l'ultima parte in cui si vede il confronto con il direttore del manicomio in cui è rinchiuso. L'interprete che veste i panni del dottore è estremamente realistico e incredibilmente calato nella sua parte. Il loro confronto per me è toccante e a tratti molto emozionante seppur molto drammatico.
Bellissima è stata anche la scelta della location : il fondo di una chiesa illuminata dalle luci faceva da sfondo ad una cornice onirica e la luce gialla sul fondo, al termine della rappresentazione, è stato il filo conduttore di tutto spettacolo.
Non so dire obiettivamente se questa è stata la migliore interpretazione teatrale di Alessandro poiché anche volendo fare confronti si dovrebbero rapportare personaggi, epoche e personalità completamente diverse.
Posso dire che questo è un lavoro che ho trovato completamente nuovo, diverso forse anche distante da tutti i lavori che ho visto. E' una tipologia di teatro che si avvicina allo spettatore in modo diverso e che pone al suo centro delle tematiche un po' sfuggenti dal quotidiano.
Notevole rimane comunque la scelta di aver portato sullo scena un testo di questo livello e notevole rimane l'interpretazione di Alessandro.
Non è semplice unire personalità, carattere, toni, modi, ritmi in un unico punto. Alessandro riesce invece a farlo molto bene e con molta, forse apparente, leggerezza (che non è superficialità ma naturalezza di voce e movimento).
Sulla scena si nota l'impegno, la fatica e la dedizione da parte di tutti gli interpreti e questo ripaga gli sforzi, qualora ce ne fossero, di chi assiste allo spettacolo.
Io mi auguro che l'interpretazione di Alessandro sia apprezzata e che a lui venga riconosciuto il merito di una preparazione sempre l'altezza e di qualità.
Oggi è possibile fare teatro in molti modi ma è difficile riuscire a trovare artisti preparati a livello culturale, artistico e intellettuale di una certa levatura.
Grazie ad Alessandro per dare a tutti la possibilità di sperimentare, vedere, fruire di nuove storie, nuovo generi e nuovi performance teatrali. Chi osserva, per quanto non si esprima, impara molto anche senza mettere in pratica il suo lavoro sul campo e la cosa non è cosi scontata.
A lui, in prima persona, riconosco il merito di regalare l'opportunità di divertirsi imparando qualcosa e di dare la possibilità agli altri di offrire molteplici sfumature della sua natura artistica.
Spero nella sua carriera si possa sempre coniugare il teatro con la comunicazione, la letteratura, la storia e l'arte. Sarebbe un vanto, un merito non da poco e un qualcosa che farebbe felici (mi auguro) moltissime persone.
Un plauso a coloro che hanno partecipato alla realizzazione di questo progetto. So che è impegnativo ma spero che l'impegno possa sempre essere ripagato nel migliore dei modi.

Un abbraccio alla signora che era con me a Spoleto (di cui non ricordo il nome..so che era in compagnia della figlia ed era insieme alla cognata della signora Asti. Mi pare trascorra le vacanze a Forte dei Marmi. Mi perdoni se lo scrivo ma il nome credo di non averglielo detto. Spero sia tutto ok e spero che il Forte regali il relax giusto. ).

Buone vacanze a tutti..
Alla prossima!

[PATRICIA 22]

Alessandro, this is the exciting conclusion to the last 3 letters I posted. In it Vincent speaks of his work and Dr. Peyron.

From: Vincent van Gogh
To: Theo van Gogh
Date: Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Thursday, 5 and Friday, September 6, 1889

I’m opening this letter once more to tell you that I’ve just seen Mr Peyron, I hadn’t seen him for 6 days. He tells me that he’s planning to go to Paris this month and that he’ll see you then. That gives me pleasure, for he has, there’s no doubt about it, a lot of experience, and I think he’ll tell you what he thinks of it quite frankly.
To me he only said – ‘let’s hope that it won’t recur’, but anyway I’m counting on it recurring for quite a long time, for a few years at least. But I’m also counting on the fact that work, far from being impossible for me, can go along steadily in the meantime, and is even my remedy. And so I say once more – excluding Mr Peyron the doctor absolutely – that as regards the management here we should probably be polite, but that we should limit ourselves to that but bind ourselves to nothing.

It’s very serious that wherever I were to stay here for a little longer I would perhaps come up against popular prejudices – I don’t even know what these prejudices are – which would make my life with them unbearable.
But anyway, I’m awaiting what Mr Peyron will say to you, myself I have no idea what his opinion is. I worked this afternoon on the portrait of the orderly, which is progressing. If it weren’t very much tempered – completely – by an intelligent gaze and an expression of kindness – he would be a real bird of prey. He really is a southern type.
I’m curious if Mr Peyron’s planned journey will indeed take place this time, I’m very curious to know what may come of it.

With another year’s work, perhaps I’ll arrive at a feeling of self-security from the artistic point of view. And that’s always something worth seeking.
But for that I must have good luck. What I dream of in my best moments aren’t so much dazzling colour effects as the half-tones once again.
And certainly the visit to the Montpellier museum contributed to turning my thoughts in that direction. For what touched me there more than the magnificent Courbets, which are marvels, the young ladies of the village, the sleeping spinner – were the portraits of Bruyas by Delacroix and by Ricard, then the Daniel, Delacroix’s odalisques, all in half-tones. For these odalisques are something quite different from those in the Louvre. It’s above all purplish.

But in these half-tones what choice and what quality!
It’s time for me to send off this letter at last – I could tell you in two pages what it contains, i.e. nothing new. But anyway, I don’t have time to redo it.
Good handshake once again, and if it doesn’t put you out too much let me have the canvas as soon as possible.

Ever yours,
V.


“I shouldn't precisely have chosen madness if there had been any choice, but once such a thing has taken hold of you, you can't very well get out of it.”
― Vincent van Gogh

"All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them."
―Galileo Galilei

"Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth."
―Buddha


Later Preziosi, Love ya, me
_________________
Patricia.

"Hell is empty and all the devils are here."
―William Shakespeare

[ladyoscar]

Ciao Alessandro

[PATRICIA 22]

Alessandro, this is part one of a letter Vincent sent to Theo where he speaks of other artists, his mental health, work and how he feels like a coward. Quite interesting indeed!

From: Vincent van Gogh
To: Theo van Gogh
Date: Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Tuesday, September 10, 1889

My dear Theo,
I think your letter is really good, what you say about Rousseau and artists like Bodmer, that they are men in any case, and of such a kind that one would wish the world populated with people like that – yes indeed, that’s what I myself feel too.
And that J.H. Weissenbruch knows and does the muddy towpaths, the stunted willows, the foreshortenings and the learned and strange perspectives of the canals ‘as Daumier does his lawyers’, I think that’s perfect. Tersteeg did well to buy some of his work from him, the fact that people like that don’t sell, according to me that’s because there are too many sellers who try to sell other things, with which they deceive the public and mislead them.

Do you know that today, still, when I read by chance the story of some energetic industrialist or above all a publisher, that the same feelings of indignation then come to me again, the same feelings of anger from the old days when I was with G.&Cie. Life goes on like that, time doesn’t come back, but I’m working furiously, because of the very fact that I know that the opportunities to work don’t come back.

Above all, in my case, where a more violent crisis may destroy my ability to paint forever. In the crises I feel cowardly in the face of anguish and suffering – more cowardly than is justified, and it’s perhaps this very moral cowardice which, while before I had no desire whatsoever to get better, now makes me eat enough for two, work hard, take care of myself in my relations with the other patients for fear of relapsing – anyway I’m trying to get better now like someone who, having wanted to commit suicide, finding the water too cold, tries to catch hold of the bank again.

My dear brother, you know that I came to the south and threw myself into work for a thousand reasons. To want to see another light, to believe that looking at nature under a brighter sky can give us a more accurate idea of the Japanese way of feeling and drawing. Wanting, finally, to see this stronger sun, because one feels that without knowing it one couldn’t understand the paintings of Delacroix from the point of view of execution, technique, and because one feels that the colors of the prism are veiled in mist in the north.

All of this remains somewhat true. Then when one also adds to it an inclination of the heart towards this south that Daudet did in Tartarin, and the fact that here and there I’ve also found friends and things that I love here.
Will you then understand that while finding my illness horrible I feel that all the same I’ve entered into attachments that are a little too strong here – attachments which could mean that later on the desire to work here will take hold of me again – while all the same it may well be that I’ll return to the north relatively soon.
Yes, for I don’t hide from you the fact that in the same way that I’m taking my food avidly at present, I have a terrible desire that comes to me to see my friends again and to see the northern countryside again.

Work is going very well, I’m finding things that I’ve sought in vain for years, and feeling that I always think of those words of Delacroix that you know, that he found painting when he had neither breath nor teeth left. Ah well, I myself with the mental illness I have, I think of so many other artists suffering mentally, and I tell myself that this doesn’t prevent one from practising the role of painter as if nothing had gone wrong.

Vincent


"The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore.”
― Vincent van Gogh

"It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself."
―Thomas Jefferson

"Words without thoughts never to heaven go."
―William Shakespeare

Later Preziosi, Love ya! me.
_________________
Patricia.

"Hell is empty and all the devils are here."
―William Shakespeare

[genziana]

"Le Confessioni di Sant'AGOSTINO", reading di e con

ALESSANDRO PREZIOSI - produzione: KHORA.teatro

adattamento:Tommaso Mattei, musica: Paky Di Maio

“Il tempo non esiste,
è solo una dimensione dell'anima.
Il passato non esiste in quanto non è più,
il futuro non esiste in quanto deve ancora essere,
e il presente è solo un istante inesistente
di separazione tra passato e futuro.”
Sant'Agostino

La vita di Sant'Agostino è stata una continua ricerca della verità e una strenua lotta contro l'errore. Nel percorso di una vita intera, per il filosofo, la fede è condizione della ricerca, fame di Verità, rigorosa e difficile. Essa non si abbandona facilmente a credere, non chiude gli occhi di fronte alle difficoltà della fede, non tenta di evitarle ma le affronta continuamente. Ripiegarsi su di sé, confessarsi, è il primo gradino per arrivare alla verità che sola può essere scoperta raggiungendo il più intimo nucleo dell’io. Muovendosi su un doppio filo, tra fede e ricerca, il recital di Alessandro Preziosi tende ad approfondire la condizione dell’essere umano, in un cammino che culmina nella fede dell'uomo oltre il dubbio. A fare da collante fra i due poli, il problema del tempo, inteso come adattamento, prima teorico e poi intimo, della questione della fede. Secondo Agostino il tempo esiste solo come dimensione dell’anima umana.
Noi conserviamo la memoria del passato e siamo in attesa del futuro; vi è poi nell’anima l’attenzione per le cose presenti. La vita dell’uomo si svolge, si distende tra attenzione, memoria e attesa.

appuntamenti d'estate a MINORI (Sa) nella rassegna

''LE VIE DELL'ARTE E DEL PALATO in Costa d'Amalfi''

sabato 29 luglio 2017, Villa Romana Marittima 21:00







_________________

[PATRICIA 22]

Alessandro, this is part two of the letter I posted yesterday in which Vincent speaks of religion, painting, Beecher, Stowe, Dickens, the residents of his neighborhood who signed a petition to have him committed and his cowardice.

From: Vincent van Gogh
To: Theo van Gogh
Date: Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Tuesday, September 10, 1889

When I see that crises here tend to take an absurd religious turn, I would almost dare believe that this even necessitates a return to the north. Don’t speak too much about this to the doctor when you see him but I don’t know if this comes from living for so many months both at the hospital in Arles and here in these old cloisters.

(Note: The asylum was housed in the former monastery of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole.)

Anyway I ought not to live in surroundings like that, the street would be better then. I am not indifferent, and in the very suffering religious thoughts sometimes console me a great deal. Thus this time during my illness a misfortune happened to me – that lithograph of Delacroix, the Pietà, with other sheets had fallen into some oil and paint and got spoiled.

I was sad about it – then in the meantime I occupied myself painting it, and you’ll see it one day, on a no. 5 or 6 canvas I’ve made a copy of it which I think has feeling – besides, having not long ago seen the Daniel and the Odalisques and the Portrait of Bruyas and the Mulatto woman at Montpellier, l'm still under the impression that it had on me. This is what edifies me, as does reading a fine book like one by Beecher Stowe or Dickens. But what disturbs me is constantly seeing those good women who believe in the Virgin of Lourdes

(Note: On February 11, 1858, the Virgin Mary had appeared to the fourteen-year-old Bernadette Soubirous in a grotto at Lourdes. Seventeen apparitions followed. In addition to the cult centred around Our Blessed Lady of Lourdes, Bernadette also became a figure of reverence, and Lourdes quickly grew into one of the most popular places of pilgrimage.)

and make up things like that, and telling oneself that one is a prisoner in an administration like that, which very willingly cultivates these unhealthy religious aberrations when it ought to be a matter of curing them.

(Note: van Gogh is referring to the nuns, supervised by Madame Deschanel (Sister Epiphane), who nursed the patients in the women’s wing. Orderlies worked in the ‘men’s quarters’.)

So I say, it would be even better to go, if not into penal servitude then at least into the regiment.
I reproach myself for my cowardice, I ought to have defended my studio better, even if I had to fight with those gendarmes and neighbours.

(Note: At the end of February 1889, the residents of van Gogh’s neighbourhood in Arles had signed a petition against him, because he supposedly represented a threat to his surroundings. The chief of police had him committed to hospital and locked up his studio. van Gogh was meant to look for other accommodation when he was released from hospital.)

Others in my position would have used a revolver, and indeed, had one killed onlookers like that as an artist one would have been acquitted. I would have done better in that case then, and now I was cowardly and drunk.

ill too, but I wasn’t brave. Then in the face of the Suffering of these crises I feel very fearful too, and so I don’t know if my zeal is something other than what I say, it’s like the man who wants to commit suicide, and finding the water too cold he struggles to catch hold of the bank again.


“I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it.”
― Vincent van Gogh

"My job is to inform not to convince."
―Saint Bernadette Soubirous

"It takes a wise man to discover a wise man."
―Diogenes

Later Preziosi, Ciao, me.
_________________
Patricia.

"Hell is empty and all the devils are here."
―William Shakespeare

[genziana]

Foto di Massimo Sestini per SETTE n. 26/2017 CORRIERE DELLA SERA ALESSANDRO PREZIOSI






non avete ancora letto questa intervista in movimento da Roma?

la trovate in originale al LINK www.alessandropreziosi.tv/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7582&start=2340


Benvenute! siete in Alessandro Preziosi official Forum


_________________

[PATRICIA 22]

Alessandro, here in part three of the letter Vincent wrote to Theo, Tuesday, September 10, 1889, Vincent talks about Frans Braat, Dr. Peyron, and a few of his portraits.

From: Vincent van Gogh
To: Theo van Gogh
Date: Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Tuesday, September 10, 1889

But listen – to be in a lodging-house like I saw Braat back then

(Note: Frans Braat had been a colleague of Vincent and Theo at Goupil & Cie in Paris. Theo offered him help when he was seriously ill in 1884. Braat’s recovery was slow; in 1887 he was staying in Nice. It is not known when and in what circumstances he stayed ‘in a lodging-house’, as van Gogh writes)

- fortunately that time is far off, no and again no. It would be different if père Pissarro or Vignon, for example, wanted to take me into their home. Well I’m a painter myself – that can be sorted out, and better that the money goes to feed painters than to the excellent nuns. Yesterday I asked Mr Peyron point blank: since you’re going to Paris, what would you say if I suggested that you be good enough to take me with you? He answered in an evasive way – that it was too quick, that he must write to you beforehand. But he’s very kind and very indulgent towards me, and whilst he isn’t the absolute master here, far from it, I owe him many freedoms.

Anyway, one must not only make paintings but one must also see people and – from time to time, by associating with others too, recover one’s temperament and furnish oneself with ideas. I leave aside the hope that it wouldn’t recur – on the contrary I must tell myself that from time to time I’ll have a crisis. But then one might for that time go into an asylum or even to the town prison, where there’s usually an isolation cell. Don’t worry yourself in any case – work is going well and look, I can’t tell you how much it gives me a warm glow sometimes to say, I’m going to do this and that again, wheatfields &c. I’ve done the portrait of the orderly, and I have a repetition of it for you.

(Note: The first version is not known; further on van Gogh says that he has given it to the orderly, Trabuc. The repetition Vincent made for Theo is the Charles-Elzéard Trabuc)

It makes quite a curious contrast with the portrait I did of myself, in which the gaze is vague and veiled, while he has something military about him, and dark eyes that are small and lively. I made him a present of it, and I’ll also do his wife if she wants to pose.

(Note: The orderly’s wife was Jeanne Trabuc-Lafuye. van Gogh painted her portrait a short while later)

She’s a faded woman, an unfortunate, quite resigned one, and really not much, and so insignificant that I myself have a great desire to do that dusty blade of grass. I spoke with her from time to time when I was doing olive trees behind their little farmhouse, and then she told me that she didn’t think that I was ill – anyway, you would say that too at present if you saw me working, with my thoughts clear and my fingers so sure that I drew that Delacroix Pietà without taking a single measurement, though there are those four outstretched hands and arms – gestures and bodily postures that aren’t exactly easy or simple. Please send me the canvas soon, if that’s possible, and then I think I’ll need 10 tubes of zinc white as well.

(Note: van Gogh had ordered canvas, paint and brushes in a previous letter)

However, I know quite well that recovery comes, if one is brave, from inside, through the great resignation to suffering and death, through the abandonment of one’s own will and one’s self-love. But it’s not coming to me, I love to paint, to see people and things and everything that makes up our life – artificial – if you like. Yes, real life would be in something else, but I don’t think I belong to that category of souls who are ready to live and also at any moment ready to suffer.

What a funny thing the touch is, the brushstroke. Out of doors, exposed to the wind, the sun, people’s curiosity, one works as one can, one fills one’s canvas regardless. Yet then one catches the true and the essential – that’s the most difficult thing. But when one returns to this study again after a time, and orders one’s brushstrokes in the direction of the objects – certainly it’s more harmonious and agreeable to see, and one adds to it whatever one has of serenity and smiles.

Vincent


"It is looking at things for a long time that ripens you and gives you a deeper meaning.”
― Vincent van Gogh

"Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things."
― Isaac Newton

"Often, I can scarcely hear any one speaking to me; the tones yes, but not the actual words; yet as soon as any one shouts, it is unbearable. What will come of all this, heaven only knows!"
― Ludwig van Beethoven

Later Preziosi, Namaste, me.
_________________
Patricia.

"Hell is empty and all the devils are here."
―William Shakespeare

[PATRICIA 22]

Alessandro, in part four of the longest letter ever written Vincent speaks of the north and south, how to succeed, his dizzy spells, père Pissarro, Gauguin, other artists and religious and historical paintings.

From: Vincent van Gogh
To: Theo van Gogh
Date: Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Tuesday, September 10, 1889

Ah, I’ll never be able to render my impressions of certain figures I’ve seen here. Certainly the road to the south is the road where there’s something brand new, but men of the north have difficulty in getting through. And I can see myself already in advance, on the day when I have some success, longing for my solitude and distress here when I see the reaper in the field below through the iron bars of the isolation cell. Every cloud has a silver lining.

To succeed, to have lasting prosperity, one must have a temperament different from mine, I’ll never do what I could have and ought to have wanted and pursued.
But as I have dizzy spells so often, I can only live in a situation of the fourth or fifth rank. While I clearly sense the value and originality and superiority of Delacroix, of Millet, for example, then I make a point of telling myself, yes I am something, I can do something. But I must have a basis in these artists, and then produce the little I’m capable of in the same direction.

So père Pissarro has been really cruelly struck by those two misfortunes at the same time.

(Note: Theo had written that Pissarro had undergone eye surgery and that his mother had died in a previous letter)

As soon as I read that I had this idea of asking you if there would be a way of going to stay with him. If you pay him the same thing as here, he’ll find it worth his while, for I don’t need much – except for working.
So do it directly, and if he doesn’t want to I would willingly go to Vignon’s.

(Note: Shortly before September 28, Theo finally asked Pissarro if he wanted to take Vincent in. Pissarro refused, but promised to be on the look-out for a peaceful place for him to live. Living at Vignon’s was evidently not an option, because the subject is not mentioned again in the correspondence. Theo did ask Jouve, whom van Gogh later mentions as a third possibility)

I’m a little afraid of Pont-Aven, there are so many people there. But what you say about Gauguin interests me a lot. And I still tell myself that G. and I will perhaps work together again. I myself know that G. can do things even better than what he has done, but how to reassure him! I still hope to do his portrait. Have you seen that portrait he did of me painting sunflowers? My face has lit up after all a lot since, but it was indeed me, extremely tired and charged with electricity as I was then.

And yet to see the country one must live with the common people and in the little houses, the bars &c. And that was what I said to Boch, who complained of seeing nothing that tempted him or made an impression on him. I go walking with him for two days and I show him thirty paintings to do, as different from the north as Morocco would be. I’m curious to know what he’s doing at the moment.

And then do you know why the paintings of E. Delacroix – the religious and historical paintings, Christ’s barque – the Pietà, the Crusaders,have this allure?

(Note: van Gogh’s mention of Delacroix’s The crusaders must refer to Delacroix’s famous The entry of the crusaders into Constantinople ( April 12, 1204), 1840 (Paris, Musée du Louvre).

Because E. Delacroix, when he does a Gethsemane, went to see on the spot beforehand what an olive grove was like, and the same for the sea whipped up by a hard mistral, and because he must have said to himself, these people whom history talks to us about, doges of Venice, crusaders, apostles, holy women, were of the same type and lived in a manner analogous to those of their present-day descendants.

So I must tell you it, and you can see it in the Berceuse, however failed and weak that attempt may be. Had I had the strength to continue, I’d have done portraits of saints and of holy women from life, and who would have appeared to be from another century and they would be citizens of the present day, and yet would have had something in common with very primitive Christians. The emotions that that causes are too strong though, I wouldn’t survive it – but later, later, I don’t say that I won’t mount a fresh attack.

Vincent


“Let’s not forget that the little emotions are the great captains of our lives and we obey them without realizing it.”
― Vincent van Gogh

"Morality is the basis of things and truth is the substance of all morality."
―Mahatma Gandhi

"This world's a bubble."
―Saint Augustine

Later Preziosi, Ciao, me.
_________________
Patricia.

"Hell is empty and all the devils are here."
―William Shakespeare

[PATRICIA 22]

Alessandro, in part five of the letter Vincent wrote to Theo, September 10, 1889, Vincent continues to talk about the North, the South, Fromentin and Potter.

From: Vincent van Gogh
To: Theo van Gogh
Date: Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Tuesday, September 10, 1889

What a great man Fromentin was – for those who want to see the orient he will always remain the guide. He was first to establish relationships between Rembrandt and the south, between Potter and what he saw himself.

(Note: Fromentin was known for his paintings of Oriental subjects, inspired by his travels around North Africa. He wrote about Rembrandt and Potter in Les maîtres d’autrefois; van Gogh’s remark about Potter is possibly connected with the following description: ‘The very tone and workmanship of these vigorously observed areas have the effect of rendering nature as it truly is, in its contours, its nuances, its power, almost penetrating its mysteries’)

You’re right a thousand times over – one mustn’t think about all that – one must do – even if it’s studies of cabbages and salad to calm oneself down, and after being calmed then – what one is capable of. When I see them again I’ll do repetitions of that study of the Tarascon diligence, the Vineyard, the Harvest and above all the Red bar, that night café which is the most characteristic as regards color. But the white figure in the middle, correct as regards color, must be redone, better constructed. But I dare say that this is a bit of the real south, and a calculated combination of the greens with the reds.

My strength has been exhausted too quickly, but I can see from afar the possibility for others to do an infinity of beautiful things. And again and again that idea remains true, that to facilitate the journey of others it would have been good to found a studio somewhere in these parts. To make the journey from the north to Spain in one go, for example, isn’t good, one won’t see there what one ought to see – one must first and gradually accustom one’s eyes to the different light.

I myself have no great need to see works by Titian and Velázquez in museums, I’ve seen certain living types who have made me know better now what a painting of the south is than before my little journey. My God, my God, the good people among artists who say that Delacroix is not of the true orient! Look, is the true orient then what Parisians like Gérôme do?

Because you paint a bit of sunny wall, even from life and well and true according to our northern way of seeing, does that also prove that you’ve seen the people of the orient? Now that’s what Delacroix was seeking there, which didn’t prevent him at all from painting walls in the Jewish wedding and the Odalisques.

Isn’t that true – and then Degas says that it’s too expensive to drink in the bars while doing paintings, I don’t say no, but would he then have me go into the cloisters or the churches, there I’m the one who’s afraid.

That’s why I make an effort at escape through the present letter, with many handshakes to you and Jo.

Ever yours,
Vincent

"Though I am often in the depths of misery, there is still calmness, pure harmony and music inside me.”
― Vincent van Gogh

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."
―Arthur Conan Doyle

"Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once."
―William Shakespeare

Later Preziosi, Namaste, me.
_________________
Patricia.

"Hell is empty and all the devils are here."
―William Shakespeare

[genziana]

[marystone]

ohhhhhhhh.....e finalmente un critico importante che non ha paura di scrivere che ALESSANDRO PREZIOSI è BRAVO e merita gli applausi di tutti...anche di quelli ...colti.... che...storcono il naso quando lo vedono recitare in teatro....pensando che uno così bello non possa essere altrettanto bravo!!!
..... QUESTA STORIA DELLA BELLEZZA GLI STA PROPRIO STRETTA...E BASTA!!!
Quanto ancora deve sudare per dimostrare che è uno dei più bravi attori....di teatro soprattutto...in circolazione????

Questa volta l'applauso lo faccio al critico di Spoleto...che è un festival importantissimo!!!!

Evvai ALE!!!!! puoi essere fiero e contento di TE!!!

Un forte abbraccio
Mariella
_________________

[PATRICIA 22]

Alessandro, in part six of the letter Vincent wrote to his brother, September 10, 1889, Vincent talks about his Mother, the odd patients at the hospital that unsettled him, his friend Auguste Jouve and his crisis.


From: Vincent van Gogh
To: Theo van Gogh
Date: Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Tuesday, September 10, 1889

I still have to congratulate you on the occasion of Mother’s birthday,

(Note:Mrs van Gogh celebrated her 70th birthday on 10 September.)

I wrote to them yesterday but the letter hasn’t gone off yet, because I wasn’t in the mood to finish it. It’s funny that the idea had already come to me 2 or 3 times before to go to Pissarro’s, this time, after you’ve told me of his recent misfortunes, I don’t hesitate to ask it of you.

Yes we must be done here, I can no longer do both things at once, working and doing everything in my power to live with the odd patients here – it’s unsettling. I’d like to force myself to go downstairs, but in vain. And yet it’s almost 2 months since I’ve been out in the open air.

(Note: Since his attack on July 16 or 17 ( the first in Saint-Rémy), van Gogh had not been out of doors, not even in the garden of the asylum)

In the long run here I would lose the faculty to work, now there I begin to call a halt, and so I’ll send them packing, if you agree. And paying for it what’s more, no, then one or the other of the artists fallen in misfortune will consent to set up house with me. Fortunately, you can write that you’re well, and Jo too, and that her sister is with you.

(Note: Jo’s sister Mien was in Paris)

I’d very much like to be back myself when your child arrives – not with you, certainly not, that isn’t possible, but in the area around Paris with another painter.
I could, to mention a third, go and stay with the Jouves, who have a lot of children and a whole household.

(Note: The painter Auguste Jouve was a friend of Theo and Vincent; the estate contains several works by his hand: Reclining female nude, Portrait of a child and Portrait of a woman with a dog (Amsterdam, van Gogh Museum). Jouve rented an apartment and a large studio at 16 boulevard Saint-Jacques in Paris. No details about his family have been found.)

You’ll understand that I’ve tried to compare the second crisis with the first,

(Note: In Arles van Gogh had had three attacks between December 23 and the end of February. Apparently he viewed these attacks collectively as a single crisis.)

and I say only this to you: it appears to me to be some kind of influence from outside rather than a cause that comes from within myself. I may be mistaken, but whatever the case I think you’ll consider it right that I’m a little horrified by all religious exaggeration.

Vincent


"How rich art is, if one can only remember what one has seen, one is never empty of thoughts or truly lonely, never alone.”
― Vincent van Gogh

"Truth is truth to the end of reckoning."
― William Shakespeare

"I am begining to look more and more like my miserable imitators."
―Rudolph Valentino

Later Preziosi, Ciao, me.
_________________
Patricia.

"Hell is empty and all the devils are here."
―William Shakespeare