Van Gogh's Ghost Paintings: Art and Spirit in Gethsemane

One of the most significant and revealing paintings by the world famous artist Vincent van Gogh was never seen by anyone but the artist himself. The painting was so important to the artist that he painted it twice. He was so conflicted about the painting that he destroyed it twice. Cliff Edwards argues these two unique paintings Vincent created and destroyed are at least as important to understanding the artist and his work as are the two thousand or more paintings and drawings that do exist. In Van Goghs Ghost Paintings Edwards invites his readers on a journey that begins in a Zen masters room in Japan and ends at a favorite site of the artist a ruined monastery and its garden in the south of France. Recovering the intent of van Gogh and the nature of his ghost paintings becomes a zen koan waiting to be solved. The solution offers access to the deepest levels of the artists life as painter and spiritual pilgrim. The journey leads to the artists choice of the biblical theme of the Garden of Gethsemane. The answer to the mystery of the lost paintings illuminates the relationship of joy and suffering discovery and creation religion and the arts in van Goghs life and work. In this fascinating book Edwards solves a long-ignored mystery that provides a critical key to the relation of van Goghs religion and art. This is a superb work. The authors fearless journey into the life of van Gogh and the interiority of the writing take the reader herself into solitude loneliness labor triumph and sorrow. It is a complex work . . . [W]e tread with this book the very path van Gogh himself hesitated on and wrestled with himself on: the seeming contradiction between the intellect and the spirit in art a contradiction that survives to the present. --Elizabeth C. King sculptor university professor 2002 Guggenheim Fellow 2006 recipient of the Academy Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and author of Attentions Loop Cliff Edwards Van Goghs Ghost Paintings is at once a riveting mystery and a beautiful meditation on sacrifice and art. The book extends a compelling invitation to sit at the feet of a master teacher as he takes readers on a fascinating heartbreaking and heart-healing journey to discover what has never been. This is a richly rewarding investigation that illuminates the darkest intersection of van Goghs spirituality and art with uplifting tenderness and compassion. Gorgeous inspiring and wise. --Kristin M. Swenson author of Bible Babel and coauthor of What Is Religious Studies? A Journey of Inquiry After all these decades of van Gogh studies finally someone opens up for us Vincents deepest quest and convincingly shows that the art of the sorrowful yet always rejoicing Dutch painter is of deep theological and spiritual significance. Edwards astute understanding of Zen Buddhism as well as of Christianity has allowed him to portray Vincent as one of the most significant spiritual figures of the nineteenth century--an artist who fully deserves the attention of modern theologians interested in interreligious dialogue. --A 1989 assessment of Edwards contributions to van Gogh studies by Dutch theologian Henri Nouwen Cliff Edwards is Professor of Religion in the School of World Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. His education spans East and West. With a PhD in biblical studies and world religions from Northwestern University he has studied in France Switzerland Israel and a Zen monastery in Japan and has been a Coolidge Fellow in New York and a Visiting Fellow at Oxford University. Among his books are Van Gogh and God The Shoes of Van Gogh and Mystery of the Night Cafe as well as a biblical commentary and two books on haiku.