van Gogh
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MOVIE SECTION
 LUST FOR LIFE
 ~Kirk Douglas Star Chart
` Kirk Douglas - IMDB

 

 

 

 

 

BOOK SECTION
  ~VINCENT
one-man play starring Leonard Nimoy
   ~Leonard Nimoy books - information

BIO SECTION
   ~Vincent van Gogh
   ~ van Gogh Gallery  

Reproduction of van Gogh famous canvas

van Gogh reproduction canvas,  Starry Night Over The Rhone

Framed Starry Night

Your Starry Night
constellation

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 Nimoy… In Search Of… Vincent van Gogh

 "I had one more important stop to make ... – what about his mysticism?  Why did he suspect that there was another side to existence? Why did he see death as a trip to a star?

 Perhaps at his birthplace I would find some answers. Certainly the family offered no clue. His father, a minister in a reformed Church - both parents,  straightforward, no nonsense, bound by tradition. No mysteries here. And yet, during his brief career as an evangelist among the miners in Belgium, Vincent preached that he was a stranger on the earth. Why?

 In Zundart, Holland, I made an amazing discovery. In the early 1850s, a strange ritual took place at this Church every Sunday.   Young Vincent van Gogh visits a grave which bears his own name. The grave is that of a brother, who was still born. Both Vincents were born on exactly the same date, exactly one year apart.

He lived his entire childhood with a ghost that bore his name. Could this Sunday ritual have planted the seeds of his mysticism?" *
 


 Ste. Maries de-la-Mer, home of Nostradamus, the seer of Provence, influenced many artists, mystics and madmen, such as Schwaller de Lubicz, Cezzane and Vincent van Gogh; van Gogh was probably also intrigued by the lost city of Glanum and the arena of Arles and the Diana/Isis temple at Nimes. Vincent's Star Chart on his day of birth, March 30, 1853, shows his Sun in the sign of his brother's Ascendant, Aries @ 9°39 and his Ascendant  Moonchild [Cancer]  21°06. These ancient ruins fascinate natives born under the influence of Mars [Aries] and the Moon [Moonchild, Cancer.]

The legendary site near the mouth of the Rhone where early Christian pilgrims from Jerusalem landed, enjoys the interest of both artist and spiritual advocate. Tour guides offer an authentic, low or high impact, up close and personal on-site explanation of the missionary group's itinerary. The star chart constructed for Theo van Gogh, born May 1, 1857 reveals his Taurus Sun @ 10°40, his ASC @ 3°24 Aries, and his Mercury in Gemini, in contrast to Vincent's tremendous, non-linear, spiritual power chart. Theo was the link to Terra Firma during the creative years when Vincent achieved a religious connection with the world around him. [Leonard Nimoy is an Aries native, March 26, 1931, in Boston, MA.] Theo was the solid rock Vincent could trust as he explored the nature he loved in his vivid painting. Kurosawa brings van Gogh's huge field of sunflowers to life in DREAMS, a must see experience for anyone touched by the van Gogh brush. 

One critic who reviewed the DVD Laser  LUST FOR LIFE, commented, "The paintings! There are museum exhibitions or other gatherings of talent of one type or another which, one realizes if one is lucky enough to observe them, will never happen again. No one today could ever assemble the original artwork that Minnelli did to shoot Lust for Life. Why did he bother? It is for the same reason that good filmmakers will use real jewelry or real gold. A viewer's conscious eye may not notice the difference, but the subconscious will. It is the incidental shots of the paintings and drawings of Van Gogh and other artists, leaning against a table leg on the floor, or squeezed together on a cluttered wall, that excite one's attention."
 


Starry Night on the Rhone by Vincent Van Gogh, 1888

 

See also The Blue-Violet Wave and The Silver Rose and Gertrude Jekyll  [Colour Schemes for the Flower Garden, A Gardener's Testament]  although she worked so closely with William Robinson [The Wild Garden (1870) and The English Flower Garden (1883)] and shared his love of the natural shape and contrasting foliage of plants, nonetheless could not deny her formal art school training. She saw clearly the amount of technical discipline needed to create a 'spontaneous' garden picture which would combine form and colour to delight the eye. Art should combine with Nature.

Starry Night and Sunflower icons

Leonard Nimoy writes, After one of my lectures, I was invited to the home of a couple who taught art at the university; we got to talking about touring programs such as mine, and they mentioned a one-man play about Vincent Van Gogh, based on the more than four hundred letters he's written to his brother.

I was immediately intrigued, because I'd been interested in finding such a one-actor vehicle along the lines of Hal Holbrook's wonderful presentation that permitted audiences to spend an evening with Mark Twain. It seemed a fascinating challenge. At the same time, this particular play about Van Gogh struck me as unique, because it didn't feature Vincent himself, but rather Vincent's brother, Theo. And it seemed to me that audiences would be able to much more quickly accept such a character, rather than an actor claiming to be the brilliant and eccentric Van Gogh himself. (Besides, Kirk Douglas had already given a marvelous performance as the artist in the film LUST FOR LIFE.)

-Leonard Nimoy, I AM SPOCK

Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh
(7 October 1876)

Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh
(July 1880)

Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh
(2 April 1881)
 

Life Notes from "Vincent (Willem) van Gogh," International Dictionary of Art and Artists
St. James Press, 1990
Regarding van Gogh's Career

Worked as apprentice for the Goupil Gallery picture dealers in The Hague, 1869-74, London, 1874-75, and Paris, 1875-76; taught in English schools in Ramsgate and Isleworth, 1876; worked in a bookshop, Dordrecht, 1877; prepared for theology study, then took an evangelist course in Brussels, and worked as a missionary in the coal-mining Borinage district of Belgium, 1879; focused attention on his drawing from 1880, living with his family off and on, and in other Dutch towns until 1886 (attended Antwerp Academy briefly, 1885-86); lived in Paris, 1886-88; institutionalized as epileptic in Arles, 1889, Saint-Remy, 1889-90, and Auvers-sur-Oise, 1890. Major collections of van Gogh's work are located in Otterlo and at the Rijksmuseum Vincent Van Gogh in Amsterdam. Masterworks include Bearers of the Burden, 1880; Potato Eaters, 1885; PSre Tanguy, 1887; Orchard, 1888; Sailing Boats at Les Saintes Maries, 1888; Postman Roulin, 1888; Sunflowers, 1888; The Night Caf‚, 1888; The Arlesienne, 1888; Starry Night, 1889; Portrait of Dr. Gachet, 1890; Wheatfield with Crows, 1890.

 

Kirk Douglas won his Lifetime Achievement Oscar in 1995. “I was nervous – it was the first time that I’d spoken publicly since my stroke. I was working with a speech therapist so I could just say, ‘Thank you.’ But when I saw people standing and applauding, I liked it. So I said more. The important thing, more than the Oscar, was that they were able to understand me.” Many felt Douglas should have won the Oscar for his passionate portrayal of Vincent van Gogh. One afternoon that will forever remain etched in my akasha records for this incarnation, “Lust For Life” was screened after a program my mother and I planned to watch together. We decided to leave the set on and I stayed home for the movie. Throughout the film we were speechless. When the credits ran we looked at each other and said, at the same time, ‘We should do his numbers.’ Douglas gave such a heart –rending performance we spent an entire visit on van Gogh, researching him and his whole life story. Some experiences stay with you!

Douglas is one of those great actors with the ability to transform the way people think. He said, “I’ve been nominated three times. For Lust for Life [1956], I was in Munich making a picture during the ceremony. But Yul Brynner won for The King and I. Later the hotel concierge gave me a box. In it was a mock Oscar from my wife and son Peter, saying, ‘With us you always deserve an Oscar.’ I told my wife, ‘One day if I get an Oscar I will give it to you.’ When I won the honorary Oscar, I gave it to her.”

 

Vincent van Gogh - Lust for Life 03:23
Great scene between Kirk Douglas and Anthony Quinn

 

 

Further Reading

  • · Verzamelde Brieven, edited by J. van Gogh-Bonger, 4 vols., 1952-54;
          2 vols., 1955; as Complete Letters, Greenwich, CT, 3 vols., 1958.

  • · Correspondance complète, enrichie de tous les dessins originaux,
          edited by Georges Charensol, Paris, 3 vols., 1960.

  • · Van Gogh: A Self-Portrait, edited by W. H. Auden, Greenwich, CT, 1961.

  • · Letters, edited by Mark Roskill, London, 1963, New York, 1967.

  • · Dagboek, edited by Jan Hulsker, Amsterdam, 1970; as Diary, NY, 1971.

  • - Vincent van Gogh Gallery


    •  IMDB Leonard Nimoy is also credited as a writer for the series "In Search Of..." (episode "In Search of Vincent Van Gough") - Leonard Nimoy fan page, excellent van Gogh information re VINCENT
     Dramatic Publishing [Leonard Nimoy]

    Leonard Nimoy in Starfleet Log here

     

     

    *  Spock, the essential representative of Vulcan mysticism, in day mode Leonard Nimoy, commented on STAR TREK III on this page. Nimoy and Spock have superimposed their character roles on such occasions as this, when Nimoy took on a double time commitment as star and director for this metaphysical Trek formula. "The major theme in this film is about friendship. What should a person do to help a friend? How deeply should a friendship commitment go? What price should people be willing to pay? And what sacrifices, what obstacles, will these people endure? That’s the emotion line of the film. For me, that’s its reason for existence."