Thirteenth International Conference on The Arts in Society

Abstract

Biographical analysis is a crucial tool to understand and appreciate art. In the following article, I will demonstrate points and facts supporting this theory. Biographical analysis helps us put a work of art into a context. It helps us understand why an artist made the work the way it is and to psycho-analyze the artist. This shows us how current or past events have influenced the artist. For example, one can clearly see the impact that the event The Pardon at Pont- Aven, had on Gauguin’s work. In Vincent Van Gogh’s series of paintings depicting shoes, one can understand the subject matter better when one learns about his experience in the mines of Borinage. Such analysis also shows us a cross-pollination of ideas which takes place through interactions amongst various artists, or the expression of latent emotions that are aroused through different encounters with different people in their life. For example, the impact of Gauguin on Emily Bernard, the reflection of Gauguin’s longing for Madeleine in his painting Madeleine Bernard (1888), Andy Warhol’s The Last Supper (1986) which was inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper (1495–1498) and Tobias Stengel’s Die Woge (2006), was a contemporary take on Katsukisha Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa (1823- 1829). This practice helps us restructure the events in an artist’s life, which clearly depicts why they paint a certain way, what era were they in and what were the social norms that surrounded them, if we can visualize this then it becomes easier to value and appreciate their work, being better equipped with important facts. Let’s take the example of Edvard Munch, his mother died of tuberculosis in 1868, his sister Johanne Sophie died in 1877, his younger sister was diagnosed with mental illness and the woman he loved, Tulla Larsen, left him for another man, one can constantly see the outlet for these experiences in his paintings- Kiss of Death (1899) and The Scream (1893)]. Death has always been a recurrent theme in Munch’s work, possibly because of his encounter with two deaths in the family.