Van Gogh's paintings in the basement: Toward the redemption of art (Vincent van Gogh, The Netherlands)

This dissertation analyzes the personal letters of the painter Vincent Van Gogh according to the following themes: Van Gogh's Dutch and familial background, Christianity and the social gospel, aesthetic and artistic practices, moral beliefs, and Van Gogh's importance to the postmodern world. Through this methodology, the premise is developed that Van Gogh's artistic beliefs and practices hold important lessons for the contemporary world. The fact that Van Gogh's art is so highly thought of by the general public suggests that the Gospel themes and intentions that motivated his art are universal and remain culturally relevant in our era.; Van Gogh's familial influences stressed social activism; and his view of art as honest craft was linked to his love of rural Holland, where religious belief meant putting the social gospel into action. His father and grandfather were both Protestant pastors holding national positions overseeing welfare programs for the poor in rural Holland. When Van Gogh later became an artist, his aesthetic ideals linked honest labor to the Gospel imperative to "love one another."; Throughout his career, Van Gogh lived with peasants and cloth weavers just as he had with miners in the capacity of a volunteer minister. Van Gogh's artistic beliefs took root in communities where one's vocation had tangible social value. His art is characterized by an earthy spirituality---it is an expressive unity of naturalized form, sacred theme, and social context.; Finally, Van Gogh's sacred artistic example is compared and contrasted with aspects of postmodern artistic belief and practice whereby the content of a work of art and the artist's social obligation are considered irrelevant. The conclusion of this dissertation is that, contrary to such dismissive trends, the need for culturally redemptive art in the twenty-first century is greater than ever: art removed from the Gospel's transformative purpose withers.