Post-Van Gogh Retrospective:
Happy Art Collectors

Dr. T.F. Chen

Imaginative Art Dealer (II)
Oil on canvas
60" x 40"
1987

Collection: Thomas Wee's Gallery, Taipei

Bonnard:
"Dinning Room on the Garden,"(1934), Solomon R., Guggenheim Museum, New York

Van Gogh:
"Portrait of Pere Tanguy,"(1887), Musee rodin, Paris

Chagall:
"Song of songs,"(1957-66), Le Message Biblique de Marc Chagall, Nice, Musee National

Vincent van Gogh, Chagall, and Bonnard are all colorists in modern art history. each in their won distinctive, high personal way. They revealed their emotion, passion, and sensibility through color; exploring the expressiveness of color in regards to relationship, tonality and psychological impact.

The colorist harmony in Bonnard's painting is a subtly restrained lyricism. For Bonnard, color was an end in itself; he was fascinated by its decorative value, strength, and poetic charm. Bonnard was concerned less with literal accuracy, and was very conscious of aesthetic refinement and elegance. bonnard felt that color was no longer a reference to reality, but rather an ensemble of modulations justified only by their reciprocal relationships.He once remarked, "Color has a logic as severe as from."

Chagall used colors intuitively to match his psychical reverie and mysterious sensibility. His colors were as illogical and arbitrary as his forms. Chagall stated:

For me, a painting is a surface covered with representations of things (objects, animals human forms), within a certain framework in which logic and illustration have no importance. There may exist a mysterious fourth or fifth dimension-perhaps not only of the eye-that intuitively gives rise to a balance of plastic and psychical contrasts, piercing the eyes of the spectator by new and unusual conceptions.

Thus, Chagall's unexpected and slightly absurd coloring, was nonetheless incredibly eye-catching and nuanced. Perhaps his colors may be regarded as the variant apparitions of his psyche in bloom.

Vincent van Gogh became a colorist after the influence of the impressionists (especially the Divisionists) and Japanese Ukiyo-e, in Paris. Later on, he explored the complementary enriching relationships of colors, their contrast and exaggerated effects. In a later, Vincent wrote, "Instead of trying to reproduce exactly what I have before my eyes, I use color more arbitrarily, in order to express myself forcibly." An example of  this is in his famous "The Night Cafe," (1888) where Van Gogh tried to use red and green "to express the terrible passion of humanity."

In T.F.Chen's "Imaginative Art Dealer (IV)." the similar tonality and coloring in Bonnard and Chagall's paintings seem to join together into a sea of pinks, reds, oranges, yellows and a little bit of violet; revealing forms by integrating into them. Chagall's embracing couples, Lovely angels, graceful birds, fanciful horses, and other exquisite forms dance within this joyous atmosphere. Pere Tanguy's sturdy presence, as well as the items upon Bonnard's table (white jar, green vase, etc.) stabilize the scene. Tanguy's blue coat contrasts with the reddish background, while above his neck, the brilliant yellow achieves a powerful focus for the entire painting.